Eroica Symphony

The program opened with the relatively brief Hindemith suite before diving headlong into Ronald Stevenson’s adaptation of the Adagio from Mahler’s 10th Symphony and a nearly hourlong rendition of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, in a solo version by Liszt.

������ if Beethoven had written the “Eroica” Symphony with a scale of 19 notes, or Schoenberg had written tone rows with 23?

If there is one piece that is most associated with Klemperer, it is Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, a work he returned to constantly.

Finished in November 1827, the piece dwells on Beethoven’s death earlier that year: It is in the same key as Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, and it likewise centers on a funeral march, in C minor, whose shadow is cast off only in a finale that takes consolation, of a sort, in compositional virtuosity, delighting as it layers themes on top of one another.

On this third Wee album are Alkan’s transcription of Mozart’s stormiest piano concerto and Liszt’s rewriting of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony.