Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Symphony No.3 in E Flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica"Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)Symphony No.8 in B Minor, D. 759, "Unfinished"Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, the first heralding the new century, in1800, and the last completed in 1824. Although he made few changes to thecomposition of the orchestra itself, adding, when occasion demanded, one or twoinstruments more normally found in the opera-house, he expanded vastly thetraditional form, developed in the time of Haydn and Mozart, reflecting thepersonal and political struggles of a period of immense change and turbulence.To his contemporaries he seemed an inimitable original, but to a number of hissuccessors he seemed to have expanded the symphony to an intimidating extent.The initial inspiration for Beethoven’s third symphony seems to have comefrom the French envoy, Count Bernadotte, who had been sent to Vienna in 1798,taking with him in his entourage the virtuoso violinist and composer RodolpheKreutzer, to whom Beethoven was later to dedicate his most famous violin sonata.Bernadotte spent some time in Beethoven’s company and seems to have given himthe notion of composing a heroic symphony in honour of General Bonaparte. TheFrench had, by force of arms, established a number of republics and hadcompelled Austria to unfavourable peace terms at the treaty of Campo Formio. AsFirst Consul it seemed that Napoleon embodied the virtues of the republic ofclassical Rome, an ideal that had a strong attraction for Beethoven.The score of the completed symphony was seen by Beethoven’s friends early in1804, bearing on its title page the name Buonaparte at the top and thesubscription Luigi van Beethoven. At the news that Napoleon had declared himselfemperor, Beethoven tore the page up, leaving on his own copy the words Sinfoniagrande, with the added note in pencil Geschrieben auf Bonaparte. The completedwork was in the end dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz, who paid 400 ducats for theprivilege. A recent biographer has pointed out that Beethoven had expresseddisillusion with Napoleon before he wrote the Eroica Symphony, but thatat the time of its composition he was considering moving to Paris. There was, atthe very least, a certain ambivalence in Beethoven’s attitude to the greatnessof Napoleon’s achievement and to his apparent betrayal of republican ideals.The Symphony No.3 in E flat major, Opus 55, has a number of originalfeatures, including the substitution of a funeral march for the slow movement, aScherzo for the Minuet, as in the D major Symphony, and a set ofvariations for the finale. It is, besides, on a heroic scale, scored for pairsof flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets and drums, with three Frenchhorns and the customary strings.Beethoven made his first sketches for his eighth symphony in 1811 andcompleted the work in October the following year, during the course of a visitto Linz. The summer had taken him to the spa town of Teplitz, where he was tomeet the great German poet and polymath Goethe, to little effect, while thesubsequent journey to Linz was undertaken for the officious purpose of forcinghis younger brother Johann, an apothecary in the town, to break off hisirregular liaison with Therese Obermeyer, a woman that Johann married inNovember of the same year. Whatever anxieties he may have entertained at thetime about his health or about members of his family, he created in the EighthSymphony a work of clear optimism.Schubert’s Symphony in B minor was the work of 1822 and only two ofthe expected four movements were finished, with part of a scherzo. Thesemovements were not played in Schubert’s life-time, but were rediscovered 43years later and given their first performance in Vienna in 1865. The manuscripthad been given by Schubert to his friend Josef Huettenbrenner as a present forhis brother Anselm in Graz. The latter had later arranged a piano duet versionof the movements, which he and his brother played together. For years themanuscript remained in Anselm Huettenbrenner’s possession, its existence onlyknown to a few, until it came to the attention of the conductor Johann Herbeck.Later writers have offered various explanations of the fragmentary nature ofthe symphony, none completely convincing. It has been suggested, improbably,that four movements were actually completed and sent to Anselm Huettenbrenner,who then lost two of the movements. More plausibly others have found a reasonfor not finishing the symphony in the composer’s preoccupation with other work.Certainly Schubert could never be sure that larger scale works would ever beperformed. It might be added that in 1822 Schubert contracted venereal diseaseand that the serious nature of this incurable disease and its probable fataloutcome affected him very deeply.Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)The Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest symphonicensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at the instance of Milos Ruppeldt andOskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the sphere of music. Ondrej Lenard wasappointed its conductor in 1970 and in 1977 its conductor-in-chief. Theorchestra has given successful concerts both at home and abroad, in Germany,Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Hong Kong andJapan. For Marco Polo the orchestra has recorded works by Glazunov, Glière,Miaskovsky and other late romantic composers and film music of Honegger, Bliss,Ibert and Khachaturian as well as several volumes of the label’s JohannStrauss Edition. Naxos recordings include symphonies and ballets byTchaikovsky, and symphonies by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns.The Slovak Philharmonic OrchestraThe Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work ofits distinguished conductors. These include Vaclav Talich (1949- 1952), LudovitRajter, Ladislav Slovak and Libor Pesek. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long anddistinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its mostsuccessful recordings, among them the complete symphoniesof Dvořák.Michael HalászMichael Halász’s first engagement as a conductor was at the MunichGärtnerplatz Theater, where, from 1972 to 1975, he directed all operettaproductions. In 1975 he moved to Frankfurt as principal Kapellmeister underChristoph von Dohnányi, working with the most distinguished singers andconducting the most important works of the operatic repertoire. Engagements as aguest-conductor followed, and in 1977 Dohnányi took him to the staatsoper inHamburg as principal Kapellmeister. From 1978 to 1991 he was General MusicalDirector of the Hagen opera house and in 1991 he took up the post of ResidentConductor of the Vienna State Opera.