S2 Ep 21. Beethoven. Part 3. Rebirth

This symphony is not only the emergence of the Romantic movement (our relationship to the sublime) but has pagan vitality permeating it; the spirit of great mystery religions of Greece, Egypt and the Near East are saturating this symphony since at its heart is a death and resurrection archetype which can turn any spiritually attuned person inside-out. The hero myth is central to it, especially that of Prometheus who stole the fire (spirit, intelligence) from the Olympians so as to create the human race and for which he was cruelly punished - like Beethoven, the greatest living composer, for many the greatest of all time, who was going deaf and feared the loss of his titanic creativity. The third symphony is the rising from his grave of despair.  Beyond that it represents an archetype in human consciousness, that of its death and rebirth. This symphony is immersed in that archetype and therefore speaks to our times as much as to his.

Thanks to the BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. All musical extracts in these podcasts taken from that source.   https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1