Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 | Bundesjugendorchester & Elias Grandy...

Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 is a truly classical start to any concert program: The Bundesjugendorchester under the baton of Elias Grandy played the overture at the Festival Young Euro Classic in 2021 at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) wrote only one opera. The original version of 1804/05, with the programmatic title Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe (Leonore, or the Triumph of Married Love), was rewritten twice by Beethoven before the composer himself premiered it under the name Fidelio in 1814. There are four different overtures to the three versions of the opera, whereby it was the Overture No. 3, Op. 72b from 1806 which then began its own “career”, so to speak. It’s a popular overture for concerts to this day, usually at the beginning of the program. In itself, Leonore Overture No. 3 is an instrumental, abridged version of the opera Fidelio, the plot and moods of which it anticipates in concise form. Fidelio is a “rescue opera”, in which the heroine Leonore slips into the role of the titular jailer, in order to free her beloved husband Florestan from prison. The situation seems hopeless, however, as Florestan’s execution is imminent. At the last moment, a trumpet melody announces the redeeming and righteous minister, who will bring about Florestan’s liberation. This trumpet melody not only forms the suspenseful climax of the opera Fidelio but is also the point at which the threads of the Leonore Overture converge (07:45), before the orchestra celebrates the triumph of freedom in a heroically serene round of melodies. The Young Euro Classic Festival is the world’s most important platform of young international orchestras for the European classical music tradition and its development. Every summer, youth orchestras from all over the world play for two and a half weeks in Berlin’s Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt.