At the request of the writer Heinrich Joseph von Collin, Beethoven composed
an overture to Collin's tragedy in five acts Coriolanus (1802) in the
spring of 1807. It was given its first performance in March 1807 in Prince
Lobkowitz's palace in Vienna. Although Beethoven's music did not bring
about the hoped-for stage revival of Collin's tragedy, the Overture made
its breakthrough as an independent concert piece. A dramatic work that owes
its somber quality to Collin's tragedy, it came to be favored for solemn
occasions.
Music for the masses! This could have been the war cry of both Beethoven
and Karajan. For this they had in common: the wish to reach out to millions
and ensure the survival of their art. Beethoven, at the dawn of the
romantic era, no longer wrote exclusively for titled patrons, but for the
middle classes. To reach them, he needed new means of popularizing and
distributing his works, such as concerts for paying audiences and the
publication of arrangements for everything from piano to brass band. In the
mid 20th century, Herbert von Karajan also saw a new way of reaching out to
greater numbers of people through the combination of picture and sound -
the video recording. This recording of the Coriolan Overture dates from
1975 and is part of a special "overture" special produced with the Berlin
Philharmonic for Unitel.
