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With LvBeethoven.com's website, you can listen to 928 midi files and 389 mp3 filesof works by Ludwig van Beethoven. The following files to listen to are in midi format. The music is created by electronic sounds and instruments, which are sequenced by musicians who become the author. The sounds, therefore, do not come from an orchestra, but the result is often pleasenty surprising. Over to you to discover... Read more about what midi files are and how to listen to them. |
The overtures for Fidelio, by Jean-François Lucarelli |
The overture Leonore n°1, published under the number opus 138, but written in 1804, would, without doubt, have been the one which opened the first performance of the opera. As was practised at the time, the overture would set the mode of the work which was to follow. However Beethoven placed, between the exposition of the theme and the reprise, a short adagio, in the place of the development, which picked up the famous theme of Florestan in his dungeon. This theme is common to three of the Leonore overtures. The composer was not, however, satisfied with this overture - the contrasts were not sufficiently indicated. It was judged by the critics as «too simple and too far from the theme of the work». It was very rich music, bursting with energy and originality. The overture begins with a sombre chord and a long, slow introduction. But we don't find, as in the two following overtures, the tragic descent into Florestan's dungeon. An impressive crecendo drives and accelerates without ceasing, towards the principal theme. Florestan's theme therefore enters in the guise of a development, following the reprise of the allegro. Also note, at the beginning of the coda, a crecendo on the principal theme, which was no doubt to later influence Rossini. The Second Overture, written immediately afterwards and published, like the opera, under the number opus 72, marks the arrival of new conceptions. It corresponds exactly with the rolling of action. Situated in the development, the culminating points of dramatic evolution reflect exactly the souls of the two principal characters, and exault in the coda, after which the trumpet call introduces the radiant and heroic characters in the Florestan theme. The reprise was a failure because, in respecting the theme of the opera, there was no question of going back to the ambience of the exposition. Wagner really liked this overture, but it wasn't appreciated by the public at the time. To
appreciate this music, one has to ignore the
overture number 3.
The musical material is identical, but the number
2 is overall a dramatic masterpiece, an opera
without words and, if compared, can seem like
a draft for the number 3. Without the reprise, the sections are elongated:
the introduction is marked with impressive contrasts
and particularly long silences. And in the development,
the form takes on the complexity comment to
the great works of this Master. When Beethoven reshuffled this work which became opus 72 b, re-established equality of form. This magnificent work became a melodic and poetic variation of the previous. We now find, after the trumpet call, a reprise
of the allegro, which debarks like an irrepresible
surge towards the gaiety of the presto. Without
a doubt one of the composer's most beautiful
works. More must be said of the principal theme of
the exposition, where the melody is played 'piano',
and simply by the violins and cellos, but with
an extraordinary force - «strong like the 'piano'
of Leonore 3», as once said a great conductor. Mendelssohn introduced this overture in the
second act of the opera. This practise has been
conserved right up until today. Much later in 1814, on the occasion of the reshuffling of the complete opera, Beethoven re-wrote the overture of « Fidelio ». Napoleon beaten, Paris occupied by the allies of the Emperor, Fidelio seemed to be a symbol of a victorious fight over tyrranny: the patriotic euphoria of Vienna explosed in this definitive overture, which took not a single theme from the opera but which left the public with the happy question of drama. The calls of the wind section, much re-inforced in this version, convinced the crowds of a festival of liberty. This announced the finale of the 9th symphony.
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Listen to the overtures of Beethoven's Fidelio |
Overture Leonore I |
Opus 138
1805 9'42" |
These
files were written and sequenced by
Jean-François Lucarelli |
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Overture Leonore II |
Opus 72
1805 13'05" |
These
files were written and sequenced by
Jean-François Lucarelli |
|
Overture Leonore III |
Opus 72a
1806 13'40" |
These
files were written and sequenced by
Jean-François Lucarelli |
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Overture Fidelio |
Opus 72b
1814 6'06" |
These
files were written and sequenced by
Jean-François Lucarelli |
The midi file creators |
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Many
thanks to Hannah SALTER for her translation
of this page from French into English
© Dominique PREVOT |
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