Naxos 8.573974
 
Ludwig van Beethoven was commissioned by the dancer and choreographer Salvatore Viganò to write the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus—an allegorical story based on the myth of Prometheus—and the composer’s piano version of the orchestral score was published not long after its premiere in 1801. Beethoven turned his symphonic style and skill in pictorial representation to conjure scenes of stormy excitement alongside elegant dances and the sublime aura of beauty surrounding the legendary musicians Orpheus, Amphion and Arion. The Finale is crowned by a theme that would later be used in the ‘Eroica’ Symphony.