This video is reserved for premium users. Join us and watch it in full now!

Live
Only on
Certain chapters are not available.
Thank you for your understanding.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Op. 43

Ouverture: Adagio – Allegro molto con brio

Introduction (La Tempesta). Allegro non troppo

1. Poco Adagio - Allegro con brio

9. Adagio - Allegro molto

16. Finale: Allegretto – Allegro molto

Brett Dean, Dramatis personae

I. Fall of a Superhero

II. Soliloquy

III. The Accidental Revolutionary

Alexander Scriabin, Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, Op. 60

Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven, Scriabin, and Dean — With Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Håkan Hardenberger

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Concert
Subscribers

Cast

Håkan Hardenberger — Trumpeter

Pierre-Laurent Aimard — Pianist

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Andris Nelsons — Conductor

Program notes

"Alas! Alas! Offspring of fruitful Tethys and of him who with his sleepless current encircles the whole earth, children of your father Oceanus, behold, see with what fetters, upon the summit crag of this ravine, I am to hold my unenviable watch." — Aeschylus, Promethus Bound

Prometheus steals the sacred fire of Olympia, the knowledge of the gods, and shares it with mortal men: the advent of human civilization. To punish him for his transgression, Zeus binds him to a rock and condemns him to a gruesome and merciless fate: every day, an eagle devours his liver (thought to be the seat of human emotions), which grows back each night so that his suffering repeats daily.

The Prometheus myth, endlessly evocative, has seen musical adaptations in every era: while Beethoven (in the only ballet he ever wrote) sees in it the torment of the artist, gnawed by doubt and ceaselessly recreating his own universe, Scriabin molds it into a symphonic poem with accompanying lightshow a century later. More recently, contemporary composer Brett Dean recasts the role of the superhero facing down the whole world in Dramatis Personae. Under the baton of Andris Nelsons, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra joins Håkan Hardenberger on the trumpet for Dean's work and Pierre-Laurent Aimard on the piano in Scriabin.

A closer look: featured composers

medici.tv - Back to medici.tv

The world’s premier resource for classical music programming: stunning live events from the world’s most prestigious halls, plus thousands of concerts, operas, ballets, and more in our VOD catalogue!

Our programs

Learn more

Useful links

  • Cookie Settings

Follow us

© MUSEEC SAS 2025 . With the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the CNC.

Europe media CNC