Overture: The Creatures of Prometheus Op.43

Beethoven must have been delighted to receive a commission from Salvatore Vigano, the most progressive choreographer in Vienna at a time when ballet was a high-profile controversial issue. Here was an opportunity to enhance his reputation as a composer of orchestral music and at the same time to apply himself to a scenario which might well have appealed to him for its noble sentiments. The central figure of Vigano’s The Creatures of Prometheus not only brought man the gift of fire but also educated him in the arts of music, war and peace. Certainly, Beethoven’s score, which consists of eighteen items in all, was effective enough to secure fourteen performances at the Hofburgtheater in 1801 and nine the following year. The Overture begins with an imposing slow introduction, in accordance with the seriousness of the subject, and then springs into urgent activity with a bustling first subject on the violins and an anxiously syncopated second subject on woodwind. Both themes are recapitulated without development.