PROGRAMME NOTES CONTINUED work’s heroic subject, before a return of the orchestral introduction sweeps the music into a joyful coda. The story of the Prometheus ballet had concerned a figure who creates two beings with the aid of fire stolen from the gods and then instructs them in human arts and passions. As a representation of the creative artist’s role as educator and civilising influence, it could hardly have failed to appeal to Beethoven; by making such direct reference to it, how better could he have concluded this masterly symphonic self-portrait? Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp
Recommended recordings of tonight’s works by Laurie Watt Ravel: Shéhérazade Renée Fleming | Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France | Alan Gilbert (Decca) or Régine Crespin | L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande | Ernest Ansermet (Decca) or Janet Baker | Philharmonia Orchestra John Barbirolli (Warner Classics) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) London Philharmonic Orchestra | Vladimir Jurowski (LPO Label LPO-0096: see below) or London Philharmonic Orchestra | Kurt Masur (LPO Label LPO-0112: see below)
Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony on the LPO Label ‘An explosive start ... and the kind of narrowbore brass sound that in recent years has reborn the London Philharmonic as the city’s premier Beethoven orchestra.’ Gramophone, April 2017
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) Overture, Fidelio
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) Symphony No. 5
Vladimir Jurowski conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra
Kurt Masur conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0096 | £9.99
LPO-0112 | £9.99
CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets. Download or stream online via Primephonic, Spotify, Apple Music, Idagio and others.
16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
