The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43

The overture opens with a short, weighty introduction, a few slow chords that seem to hold the curtain shut for a moment before the music breaks into its main character.

Once the fast section begins, the mood turns light and quick, built from a scurrying, good-humored tune passed between the strings and woodwinds. Listen for how often the music seems to catch its breath and then dash off again, a kind of musical shrug followed by a sprint.

There is no slow middle section to speak of. Beethoven keeps the piece moving forward on a single current of energy, with the loudest, fullest orchestral sound saved for the very end, when the opening's brief seriousness is swept aside by a quick, decisive close.

First-time listeners often notice a family resemblance to the finale of Beethoven's Third Symphony, the "Eroica," written a few years later. Beethoven reused a melody from this ballet's finale there, so the tune may sound oddly familiar even on a first hearing.

Beethoven wrote The Creatures of Prometheus in 1801 as music for a ballet by the Italian choreographer Salvatore Viganò, staged at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The story followed the myth of Prometheus, who fashions two clay figures and brings them to life, then teaches them art, music, and feeling. The full ballet score runs to well over an hour and includes many short dance numbers, but the overture that opens it quickly became the piece's lasting legacy. The ballet itself fell out of the repertoire not long after its early performances, while the overture kept its place in concert life, valued as a compact, high-spirited curtain-raiser. It also carries a quiet historical importance, since Beethoven later borrowed a theme from the ballet's finale for the last movement of his Third Symphony.