After a one year Covid related pause, the “Beethoven plus Festival 2021” made a triumphant return to its audience this summer. Following internationally acclaimed soloists Ariane Haering, Benjamin Schmid and Matthias Bartolomey performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto the week prior, a rare gem of the Viennese classical period sparked on the 10th of August.

Fraternity, Equality, Liberty

Eroica – Bonaparte – Prometheus

Egmont – Suppression – Grand Inquisition

Ludwig van Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony “Eroica” and the incidental music to Goethe’s drama, “Egmont” payed homage to the ideals of the French Revolution. Beethoven championed not Bonaparte, but the suppressed and democracy. The finale of the “Eroica” represents the highest virtues of humanity, the godly fire of the arts, liberty and the sciences, the patron Prometheus, who was tortured for giving his love to humanity.

The incidental music to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama, translated to the poignant declamation by Franz Grillparzer, orated by Austria’s acclaimed actor and Salzburg Festival “Jedermann” (“Everyman”) star Cornelius Obonya, unravelled in the heart of Austria – Bad Aussee. For the second half of the program, the festival founder and mastermind Karolos Trikolidis conducted Beethoven’s “Eroica”.

Incidental Music to Goethes drama “Egmont”, Op. 84

Orator – Cornelius Obonya

Soprano – Sophia Kyanidou

Europe United Festival Orchestra

Conductor – David Holzinger