Symphonie n° 3 en mi bémol majeur

'So he too is nothing more than an ordinary man. [...] he will place himself above everyone else and become a tyrant!' is what Beethoven is said to have shouted full of rage when Napoleon had declared himself emperor, and supposedly tore the title page of Symphony No. 3 headed 'Bonaparte' to pieces. Despite his anger, however, the work was again headed 'Bonaparte' when he wanted to publish it in 1804. But it was the first edition of 1806 which finally bore the title of Sinfonia eroica. La symphonie n° 3 est la première oeuvre de Beethoven dans laquelle il dut composer avec sa surdité croissante et où il laissa loin derrière lui les frontières des conventions musicales.