Beethoven – Prometheus and Egmont

The mythology surrounding PROMETHEUS is a wonderful and apt critique of God or the gods. In fact, God or the gods have never achieved anything (positive) in world history. Things do not look much better among human beings (“images of God”). Yet among them there are a very few whose achievements may be called “magnificent”.
No one will seriously dispute that human development has also seen intellectual, artistic and, I would even say, ethical rises and falls. Naturally, this depended on the particular country and cultural sphere. Greek culture stood at a particularly high level; today’s culture, roughly since 1995/2000 and especially since “globalisation”, stands very low. All the more reason today—in 2020—to preserve or restore knowledge, culture, education and decency.

Regarding EGMONT, one can observe today (“coronavirus 2020”) that human cowardice and the totalitarian state work together.
All “human rights”, indeed all “rights”, are relative or fictions. In Goethe’s play “Count Egmont”, the human ideal of freedom (Egmont) is set against totalitarianism and the police state (the Duke of Alba, Philip II). An earthly victory of the former principle is impossible; only a transcendent one is possible. Clärchen’s laurel wreath is a sign of the eternal above the petty and fleeting. People carry both within them, though the majority of “bipeds” (Arthur Schopenhauer) may increasingly lay claim to the latter.

Live recording at the Wiener Konzerthaus.

CD 1 – 61′28″
The Creatures of Prometheus
1 Background
2 Overture
3 Creation of the figures
4 Education
5 Melpomene
6 Resurrection
7 “Dances of the rabble”
8 Finale

CD 2 – 57′16″
Count Egmont
1 Overture
2 The Netherlands’ struggle for freedom against Spain
3 Goethe’s drama / history
4 Iconoclasm
5 Clärchen
6 Alba, Orange
7 Egmont’s death and halo

Total playing time: 118′44″.