I just heard an interview about Ralph Fiennes’s new movie version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. It reminded me that Beethoven had written a Coriolan Overture.

Beethoven wrote the music for a play but the play was by Heinrich Joseph von Collin not Shakespeare. Both plays are based on the Roman figure, Caius Marcius Coriolanus

As I’m finding to be the case with several pieces, I haven’t listened to this music in far too long. There was a time when Beethoven’s Coriolan and Egmont overtures were pieces I’d listen to at least a few times per month.

I loved this music before I had any idea there was a Shakespeare play and certainly before I knew anyone named Heinrich Joseph von Collin had ever lived.

Collins isn’t a huge literary figure. He is probably best known for the music Beethoven wrote, by commission, for his play.

The Coriolan Overture is a quintessential Beethoven composition. There is plenty of drama and direction in the music but also lyricism and contemplation.

I’ve chosen a clip conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9JpIqeJMVk