Beethoven Festival III: Beethoven and Saariaho

Third Symphony with the Sveriges Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon.

Beethoven's Third Symphony, Eroica, which was originally dedicated to Napoleon, is here paired with Kaija Saariaho's Orion, music inspired by the mythological hunter who was transformed into a constellation. In the early 1800s there were forces in Europe that actually wanted to rename the constellation Orion's Belt after Napoleon.