NOSPR / Alsop / "Eroica" - NOSPR

The Austrian composer Hannah Eisendle defines Heliosis – a piece commissioned by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – as “a burning recollection of extreme heat”. The Greek word does indeed mean being burnt with a sunray, which predicts music full of lively energy, a power just as life-giving as – in excess – dangerous and deadly. Flaming with the sound of winds and percussion, beaming with the blinding brilliance of the strings’ timbres. After the performance at last year’s Proms, also conducted by Marin Alsop, a BBC critic described the young Austrian composer’s piece as the highlight of the evening.

Eroica caused a turmoil, although without a scandalising context. Ludvig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 abruptly broke the majestic evolution of the symphonic cycle, appearing suddenly, together with a new, flaming style which has influenced whole generations. “A daring, wild phantasia, of an extraordinary length and extreme difficulty of performance. There is no dearth of stunning and beautiful fragments, in which the composer’s power and talent can be seen,” wrote the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung critic after the premiere.

Andrzej Sułek