Beethoven - Third ("Eroica") Symphony, 2nd Movement

Nathaniel Ayers attended the LA Philharmonic's rehearsal of Beethoven's Third Symphony - known as the "Eroica" - with his friend, Steve Lopez. It was the fall of 2005, and things were beginning to change in Nathaniel's life. It is fitting, in a way, that it was Beethoven's Third which he enjoyed that day. Nathaniel, like Beethoven, was about to take a different path.

Beethoven knew, by 1801, that he was losing his hearing. At his doctor's suggestion, he moved away from the city - to the village of Heiligenstadt. In this Vienna suburb, he thought about a new type of symphony which he would create and dedicate to Bonaparte. When he became disgusted with Napoleon's actions, in crowning himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven picked another individual who would be forever associated with the Third Sumphony - his patron, Prince Lobkowitz.

After the symphony's first public performance, at the Theater an der Wien (on the 7th of April, 1805), people didn't really understand it. It was something new from Beethoven, and it wasn't anything like his prior work. It was only later, after this funereal second movement (the Adagio assai) became known as one of the most influential pieces he'd ever written, that Beethoven's "Eroica" became more widely appreciated.

Here, the second movement is performed by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Orchestra - under the direction of Volker Hartung - in a live performance at Lee Foundation Hall, in Singapore.