Beethoven's Eroica: The First Great Romantic Symphony by James Hamilton-Paterson

3.5 Stars

Beethoven was a radical.

In a diary entry in 1793 he wrote, 'Do as much good as you can--love freedom above everything else. Never deny the truth, not even to the throne.'

The times were changing with the growing republicanism sweeping Europe. The piano was changing, the difference between the harpsichord and piano is enormous and it is much easier to see Beethoven's evolution in playing compared to earlier composers like Mozart and Haydn. 

Beethoven acknowledged that Eroica was partially inspired by Napoleon, but after he chose to crown himself emperor some of the admiration rubbed off. Another theory thought it dedicated to Prince Louis Ferdinand, the Prussian warrior prince and musician and Beethoven's friend. More accurately, I believe is that Eroica can be seen as not attached to an individual, but the revolutions redrawing eighteenth century Europe.

Beethoven was a genius and like most geniuses was not particularly pleasant. Blunt and arrogant, no matter how well deserved, he was a love/hate person. I suppose the part of his story that always saddened me is that moment, at the height of his creative career when he knew he was going deaf. He was losing the one thing that matter in life to him. A dagger to the heart. Amazingly, while he gave up performing he continued to compose and he transcended.

In the Second World War the Nazis cheerfully exploited Beethoven's music, just as the dot-dot-dot-dash opening of the Fifth Symphony was read and used by the Allies as the Morse code letter "V" for Victory, showing that Beethoven easily eclipsed German nationalism, his inspiration and recognition being universal. Later still, the last movement of the Ninth Symphony has been shamelessly co-opted to served as the European Union's 'national anthem', the 'Ode to Joy' turned into the theme song of a remarkably joyless institution. 

So, while I have and will always be a a Viennese Classical fan I understand and admire Beethoven more after reading this. He was my father's favorite composer, which as a child always seemed a bit dramatic to me, not Russian composer dramatic and over-the-top, but it wasn't until I was in my late teens that I recognized what a romantic idealist my father was.