Beethoven, Méhul Symphonies
Christoph König / Solistes Européens, Luxembourg Conductor / ensemble

A tale of two symphonies – one, Beethoven’s Third Symphony ‘Eroica’ changed the course of the symphony, and prepared the way for Brahms, Dvorák, Mahler & Bruckner’s symphonies. But it is also very much a work of its time – revolutionary France, violent upheavals in Europe – and the symphony’s amended dedication, ‘Eroica – to the memory of a great man’ (initially it was dedicated to Napoleon), saw Beethoven capture the drama and political tensions of the time in an electrifying way. Méhul’s edgy First Symphony from the very same period is another child of this revolutionary firmament. Maybe not genre defining, but a significant work in its own right, and Méhul strikes out in his own distinctive early romantic style.