Heroism, Resistance, and Sentiment: Two Events Full of Beethovenian Drama

Abstract

Beethoven’s music has set the tone during different and diverse events in human history. It has been used in order to pinpoint major historical events, but it has been also used in order to represent ideas such as friendship of nations, freedom, and many others. There are two events though when the music of Beet­ ho ven has meant more than a fine and glorious tune for the Athenian public. These two events occurred under totally different circumstances, with the first being an incident involving a Fidelio performance during World War II in occupied Athens, and the second having to do with the death of the legendary conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos and his urn containing his ashes arriving in Athens. Although the two incidents are historically unconnected, they are very much underlined by the Beethovenian values rep­ resented within the actual score. In this study, I will present the historical framework of both events but also taking a step further will dare to connect these with values that have been attributed to Beethoven’s music in terms of fundamental representation.