Beethoven Coriolan Ouverture [analysis]

In this Conducting Pills video, we'll dive into Beethoven's Coriolan Ouverture, its structure, and phrasing, the dualism of its themes, and, of course, some technical tips.

Beethoven’s Coriolan Ouverture could be defined as a miniature symphonic poem. Beethoven effectively starts a genre that will see much success in the first half of the 18th century: up until then, an overture was used to open an opera; with Beethoven, we see the ouverture as a standalone concert piece.

The drama of Coriolan turns around the tragedy of the roman hero Coriolano who defeated the Volsci but was then exiled from Rome; in order to take revenge against Rome, he forms an alliance with the Volsci themselves. When he’s about to attack Rome, his wife and his mother enter his tent and manage to convince him to desist. Depending on the version of the story (Collin, Shakespeare, Plutarch) Coriolan either kills himself or is killed by the Volsci.

The dualism of the character, fighting his own internal contrasts of love and revenge for Rome, is the starting point for Beethoven.
Here’s an analysis of the piece, keeping an eye, as usual, on its conducting issues.

You can jump through different sections here:

0:00 Conducting Pills ep.5
0:24 Starting a new genre
1:33 The story
2:12 Exposition
2:40 Technical tip
2:58 First motive
4:33 Technical tip
5:42 Second theme
6:47 Technical tip
6:58 Development
7:58 Recapitulation
8:58 Technical tip
9:31 Coda


You can find the full post (with some extra curiosities) on Beethoven's Coriolan Ouverture, from which this video derives right here: https://www.gianmariagriglio.it/condu...

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