Monday 5th December 2005
The recent choral and orchestral concert in the chapel on 18th November was a great success. Tonbridge School Choral Society with Choirs from Tonbridge Grammar School & St Bonaventure's School sang Britten's St Nicolas, and the Tonbridge School Symphony Orchestra performed Beethoven's Overture: Egmont, Op. 84, an extract of which is available here to listen to online. You can either use the player below, or alternatively you can download the MP3 (888 KB).
Beethoven wrote the incidental music for Goethe's drama in 1809. Only the Overture has won a permanent place in the repertoire - and with good reason as it is a splendidly impassioned work. The piece opens with a slow introduction with a rhythm derived from the sarabande, symbolising the Spanish oppression in the Netherlands. The allegro uses the same rhythm as the second subject, while the first subject is more flowing, though still full of urgency. The music is abruptly halted with a graphic picture of Egmont's execution but this is swiftly followed by a jubilant apotheosis in which the spirit of freedom rises to overcome tyranny. Joyful trumpet fanfares and peals of glee from the piccolo signal this conclusion - one dear to Beethoven's heart and later expanded in his opera Fidelio.
This extract is at the very end.
