BBC – Eroica: The Day that Changed Music Forever (2003) Part 2
English | Documentary | Size: 961 MB
‘The greatest single step in the history of music’: the masterpiece that tore up the classical rulebook.
In 1803 Beethoven described himself as ‘ Hercules at the crossroads,’ dissatisfied with his work and facing the threat of becoming totally deaf. It was then that he began work on the ‘Eroica,’ the Symphony No 3 in E flat which a contemporary critic said ‘revealed symptoms of an evidently unbridled attempt at peculiarity.’ A ground-breaking symphony was dedicated to the hero of his time, Napoleon. With two explosive chords, Eroica symphony launched a new era for music and created a world of limitless sonic potential. It’s revolutionary in every sense, filled with sounds that stretch the bounds of possibility. By the time the first public performance of ‘Eroica’ took place in Vienna in 1805, a privileged few had already heard the work at a private play-through at the Lobkowitz Palace in June 1804.
‘Eroica’ is a collaboration between the BBC’s classical music and drama departments, a factual drama about the genesis of Beethoven’s Symphony No 3, the Eroica. It is set over the course of a single day in June 1804 at the Viennese palace of Beethoven’s patron, Prince Lobkowitz. The composer hears his music for the very first time and waits for the answer to his proposal of marriage from the woman he adores.
Nick Dear’s award-winning period drama, starring Ian Hart as Beethoven, brings to life the momentous day that prompted Haydn to remark ‘everything is different from today’.
Writer: Nick Dear ; Director: Simon Cellan Jones ; A BBC Classical Music Television Production
Cast:
Ian Hart (Ludwig van Beethoven); Tim Pigott-Smith (Count Dietrichstein); Claire Skinner (Josephine Deym); Jack Davenport (Prince Lobkowitz); Frank Finlay (Joseph Haydn); Fenella Woolgar (Princess Marie Lobkowitz)
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Part #2 is a DVD Bonus Feature:
EXCLUSIVE BONUS FEATURE: Performance option Symphony No.3 in E flat major Opus 55 Eroica Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s outstanding surround sound recording of Eroica, made with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique exclusively for this film, is available to view as a stand-alone music performance feature.
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