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expectations. It has frequently been called a concertantc, a form familiär to the eigh- teenth Century, and a label endorsed by Beethoven himself. Yet there was never a concertante quite like this, one that runs nearly forty minutes and balances a deli- cate piano trio against tutti that thunder out as only Beethoven's Orchestra can. As with all mature Beethoven, epic themes grow and multiply out of tiny, seemingly inconsequential motifs, a procedure that would ha ve been foreign to Mozart, Haydn, and other masters of the eighteenth-cen- tury concertante. Yet Beethoven does ob- serve the technical niceties of Haydnesque sonata form, even as he Stretches these structures in ways that were to increas- ingly typify nineteenth Century concertos. The one exception to this expansiveness is the Adagio, which is surprising because it is unusually short-so much so that it has been compared to a Vivaldi slow movement. Its lead-in without pause to the rollicking "polonaise" finale makes it seem more like a sublime moment of repose than a self- contained movement. Here then is a work where virtually everything is a surprise, a refreshing nov- elty, even though it purports to be a light- hearted romp through the past. It is an early example of neo-classicism in music, and one that has few rivals. -Jack Sullivan Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 ("Eroica") -Ludwig van Beethoven Beethoven's "Eroica" opens with a double whiplash of energy that forecasts a new dynamism in music. The first of Beethoven's symphonies to break substan- tially with classical models, the "Eroica" is "heroic" not so much for its extra-musical associations as for its musical breakt hrough. As Wagner later pointed out, Beethoven pointed the way to Romanticism, and the Third Symphony launched the transition with irresistible force. As a Signal moment in the history of music, one which set revolutionary imagi- nationsablazeand inspired fierce hostility from conservatives (who described the sym phony as a work of "inordinate length" and "utter confusion"), the "Eroica" should be a special occasion in our cultural life rather than a commonplace one. We might ponder a report by Berlioz of a typical "Eroica" performance some forty years af- ter the work's 1806 premiere: "One sees there pale women raising their eyes heav- enward in a studied manner, and red-faced men trying hard not to fall asleep....If Beethoven had been alive, they would say he had failed." Clearly, the jadedness of the Contemporary concert hall is nothing new. One possible barrier to hearing the work with fresh ears is the multiplicity of "pro- grams" with which it has been burdened. First we have the famous about-face of Beethoven himself, who originally dedi- cated the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, then changed his mind in an- ger when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor, finally calling the work a "Heroic Symphony" dedicated to "the memory of a great man." Later a host of commentators- including Czerny, Berlioz, and Wagner- concocted elaborate scenarios, reading into the symphony (among other things) a me- morial to Nelson, a battle at sea, and a series of Homeric funeral games. In our Century, Igor Stravinsky, who confessed to being "disgusted" and "alien- ated" by "all the commonplaces voiced for more than a Century" about Beethoven, registered this manifesto: "What does it matter whether the Third Symphony was inspired by the figure of Bonaparte the Republican or Bonaparte the Emperor? It is only the music that matters. But to talk music is risky and entails responsibility." One commentator not afraid of that responsibility is Leonard Bernstein, whose discussion of the "Eroica" centers on Beethoven's ability to "pluck from the air the essential, the elementally true, and de- velop from it a complex superstructure that embraces all human experience." This abil ity to generate huge structures from the most basic elements-a "modern" trait that foreshadows Ives, Picasso, and Joyce-blazes forth immediately in the opening, which limits the Standard classical "introduction" to the famous repeated triad. Although superficially in sonata form, the first move-
