Leader, Frank Thomas
Conducted by Mansel Thomas Beethoven's Coriolanus' has not, as one would at first imagine, anything to do with Shakespeare's play. The author of the drama for which Beethoven wrote the overture was Heinrich Collin, a contemporary dramatist. It is a concert overture and may be considered a forerunner of the symphonic poem, which was later to be developed by Liszt. Beethoven has drawn upon Plutarch's portrait of Coriolanus, and there was much in the character of this Roman to appeal to Beethoven, whose forthright, independent, strong-willed nature was somewhat similar. In this bverture Beethoven has aimed at two things: to render musically, the character of his hero, and to picture the incident of the famous meeting between Coriolanus, his mother, and his wife