The Victoire de Wellington

Wellingtons Sieg (in French the Victoire de Wellington or sometimes the Battle of Vitoria ), opus 91, is an orchestral work of Ludwig van Beethoven made up in 1813 to celebrate the victory of the duke of Wellington over the armies Napoleonean S with Vitoria, in Spain, on June 21st, 1813.

History of work

In a Austria in full patriotic start in front of the collapse of the French Empire, the engineer Johann Maelzel, inventor of the Metronome and inspirer of the second movement of the Eighth symphony , ordered from Beethoven a symphonic work to inaugurate a new instrument of its invention, the Panharmonicon. The recent battle of Vittoria provides to Beethoven a topic very indicated.

Completed in October 1813, the Victoire de Wellington was created at the time of the concert of December 8th of the same year which saw also the creation of the Seventh symphony . Salieri, Hummel and Meyerbeer played in the orchestra. Have regard to the patriotic start which shook Austria at that time, the colossal success in this concert seems to have been more largely due to the Victoire de Wellington than with the symphony.

Posterity

Beethoven, conscious that it was about a minor part, qualified its the Victoire de Wellington of “stupidity”. In spite of its mediocrity, this work was however one of most famous of the musician of alive sound. It fell today into the lapse of memory but does not miss historical interest.

With the opening 1812 of Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski and the Battle of Huns of Franz Liszt, the Victoire de Wellington belongs to works celebrating a great military battle.

Execution

The execution time of work is approximately 14 minutes. Beethoven introduced two popular topics there: Malbrough is gone-T from there war to symbolize the France, Rule Britannia and God save the King to symbolize the England. 193 blows of gun can be heard in this picturesque symphonic page.

External bonds

ac-reims.fr - interactive Presentation of work.

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