Фрагмент из книги:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) identified his music much more closely with moral and political ideas. Two of his most important works, the opera Fi-delio and the Choral symphony, are specifically to do with freedom from political tyranny and the universal brotherhood of man. His views were shaped largely by the French revolution, which started in 1789, when he was still only nineteen years old. Beethoven’s imagination was fired by the revolutionary ideals of Liber-te, Egalite, Fraternite (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood), and some years later he dedicated his Eroica symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte as the liberator of Europe from the old order of kings and princes. He changed the dedication when Napoleon was himself crowned emperor. Beethoven saw this as a betrayal of the revolution and angrily struck Napoleon’s name from the title page of the original score.
