Prometheus - Ludwig van Beethoven

Commissioned by the imperial court, Beethoven composed The Creatures of Prometheus in 1801; it was to be his only full-length ballet music. This not very well-known compositionis more important than you might suspect.

Beethoven based the fourth movement of his Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) and his Eroica Variations on the main theme of the last movement of this ballet.

He treats this theme like a prism which refracts and disperses the incoming light in an imaginative manner.

Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, opus 43
Prometheus Variationen voor piano solo, opus 35
Symfonie nr. 3 in Es, opus 55 (de Eroica)

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director Jan Caeyers with François-Frédéric Guy (piano)