DESCRIPTION:
Claudio Abbado
Berliner Philharmoniker

Egmont, Op. 84, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of an overture followed by a sequence of nine pieces for soprano, male narrator and full symphony orchestra. (The male narrator is optional; he is not used in the play and does not appear in all recordings of the complete incidental music.) Beethoven wrote it between October 1809 and June 1810, and it was premiered on 15 June 1810.The overture, powerful and expressive, is one of the last works of his middle period; it has become as famous a composition as the Coriolan Overture, and is in a similar style to the Fifth Symphony, which he had completed two years earlier.

0:00 Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo – Allegro
8:05 Lied: "Die Trommel gerühret"
11:03 Entracte: Andante
14:13 Entracte: Larghetto
19:13 Lied: "Freudvoll und Leidvoll"
20:51 Entracte: Allegro – Marcia
24:44 Entracte: Poco sostenuto e risoluto
28:21 Mort de Klärchen
31:05 Melodram: "Süßer Schlaf"
36:20 Siegessymphonie (symphony of victory): Allegro con brio