Turku Philharmonic Orchestra & Leif Segerstam - Beethoven: König Stephan & Other Choral Works (2020) CD-Rip

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethovens general link with the theatre in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers insertion arias. König Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, its triumphant mood honouring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standardbearer of female heroism, Leonore Prohaska, is commemorated with a Soldiers Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthissons poem Opferlied (Sacrificial Song), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethovens four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.