Beethoven composed the Coriolan Overture early in 1807, and the work was first performed in two different concerts given at the home of Prince Lobkowitz. The score calls for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.

Although Beethoven knew and admired the works of William Shakespeare, the Coriolan Overture was not inspired by the Bard of Avon’s tragedy, Coriolanus. He composed this piece for a play by Matthäus von Collin that had enjoyed a brief vogue in Vienna.

The score is in the key of C minor, the same key as the Fifth Symphony, composed between 1804 and 1808. Although von Collin’s plays fell into oblivion, Beethoven’s overture was recognized as being “full of fire and power.” It is one of his most admired short orchestral works, a probing essay in musical drama. From the beginning of the piece, the musical tension is heightened by orchestral chords punctuating the weakest beat of the measure. Formally, the design is striking in that the second thematic group, representing Coriolanus’s mother Volumnia, is the only part of the exposition that is recapitulated. Finally, the opening theme returns in the home key, but it is transformed rhythmically into a short series of lamenting fragments, and the whole overture ends with a wonderfully dramatic use of silence.