Composed: 1807
Premiered: 1807, Vienna
Duration: 8 minutes

Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture was intended not for Shakespeare’s play, but for a German tragedy of the same name by Heinrich von Collin. It was composed in 1807, and had its first performance on a program which also included the Fourth Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto. It comes from Beethoven’s most productive, energetic period. 

The action of the drama is mirrored in the music. It concerns Coriolanus, the violent, irrational hero, whose pride and rage lead to his downfall. After his banishment from Rome, he allies himself with Rome’s enemies and lays siege to the city. An appeal from his mother, wife and son persuades him to lift the siege. He returns to exile, and in this version of the story dies by his own hand. 

In the music, the conflict between the restless, turbulent first subject group and the lyrical, “feminine” second subject, as well as the slowly disintegrating, quiet ending (reminiscent of the end of the funeral march in the "Eroica" Symphony) can readily be linked to the characters and events about to be depicted on the stage.

Program note by the late Dr. C. W. Helleiner.