PROGRAM NOTES

by Phillip Huscher

Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria.

Leonore Overture No. 3 Beethoven began to compose Fidelio in 1804 and completed the score the following year. The first performance was given on November 20, 1805, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. When Beethoven revised the score in preparation for a revival that opened there on March 29, 1806, he reworked the overture as Leonore Overture no. 3. The overture calls for an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings, and an offstage trumpet. Performance time is approximately thirteen minutes. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture no. 3 were given at the Auditorium Theatre on January 29 and 30, 1892, with Theodore Thomas conducting. Our most recent subscription concert performances were given at Orchestra Hall on October 29, 30, 31, and November 1, 1997, with Michael Gielen conducting. The Orchestra first performed this overture at the Ravinia Festival on July 23, 1936, with Isaac Van Grove conducting, and most recently on August 5, 2007, with James Conlon conducting. Of the four overtures Beethoven wrote for his opera Leonore—later renamed Fidelio—only the one called Leonore no. 3 has gained favor both in the concert hall, where it is much loved, and in the opera house, where it is often played, inappropriately, just before the finale. That it is an intruder in the opera house, where it can too easily overshadow all but the greatest performances of Fidelio, is something Beethoven himself could easily have told us. The Leonore Overture no. 3 is as dramatic as any music Beethoven wrote, and that is part of the problem. Placed before the curtain rises, it overshadows much of what follows. Playing it just before the final scene—a convention never sanctioned by Beethoven, but one loved by many conductors, including Mahler and Toscanini—is problematic because it first delays and then gives away the ending. Despite its number, Leonore no. 3 is Beethoven’s second version of the overture. Although it is more concise and less symphonic than his first effort (the work we call Leonore no. 2), it does not avoid the dilemma of telling us everything about the opera, in music of unforgettable substance and power, before the curtain goes up. Beethoven ultimately understood the situation well and wrote his fourth and final overture to Fidelio—less powerful music, but better stagecraft. (Leonore no. 1 was written for a production in Prague that never took place; the score was discovered after Beethoven's death, mistaken for his earliest effort, and assigned no. 1.) In the concert hall, where it has ultimately retired, the Leonore Overture no. 3 is a miracle of dramatic music, as compelling as any symphonic poem in the literature. The overture tells, or at least distills, the essence of the story. Beethoven begins in the darkness of the prison cell where Florestan has been sent, unjustly. Florestan remembers brighter days, and the music, ignited by his hope, is filled with fire and action. The distant trumpet call of the tower guard, announcing Florestan's reprieve, brings silence and then guarded optimism, but the trumpet sounds again, and freedom seems certain. At the news, the flute cannot contain its rapture. Beethoven then treats us to a full-scale, symphonic, utterly heroic recapitulation. Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For the Record The Chicago Symphony Orchestra recorded Beethoven’s Leonore Overture no. 3 in 1972 and 1988 with Sir Georg Solti conducting for London. A 1961 performance (for television) conducted by George Szell was released by VAI.

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