Beethoven: Overture to Egmont | Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra

Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra have an eventful history: The conductor played a key role in the mass demonstrations of the “peaceful revolution“ that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the GDR. On October 9, 1989, more than 70,000 GDR citizens protested for more democracy and freedom – on the same evening, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Masur, played a concert in Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church. Exactly 20 years later, the orchestra under the direction of the German conductor commemorates the historic event with an anniversary concert in the very same St. Nicholas Church. They will also play the overture to Egmont (op. 84) by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is the first part of a dramatic score to the drama “Egmont“ by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which Beethoven wrote on the occasion of a production in 1810 commissioned by the Vienna Burgtheater. The overture became very famous and is often pe