Beethoven Festival III – Beethoven and Saariaho

Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Eroica, originally dedicated to Napoleon, is here paired with Kaija Saariaho’s Orion, inspired by the mythological hunter who was transformed into a constellation. In the early 19th century, there were even voices in Europe that proposed renaming Orion’s Belt after Napoleon.

The very first powerful chords of the Eroica signal that we are about to encounter a work of heroic scope. The story of how Beethoven tore the title page from the score – where the original dedication to Napoleon is said to have appeared – is well known, though it exists in several versions. Beethoven was sympathetic to France, and his antipathy towards Napoleon softened over time.

In Greek mythology, Orion is the giant hunter who is transformed into a constellation. In this work, the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho portrays her vision of the different facets of this mythic figure. Her melodically complex and vividly evocative music possesses a rare beauty that made her a unique voice in contemporary classical music. Saariaho passed away in 2023, and one of her last major and widely acclaimed works was the opera Innocence, with a libretto by the author Sofi Oksanen.

In this concert, part of the Beethoven Festival, we hear the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas Collon.