“On its very first page Beethoven threw his hat into the ring and laid his claim to immortality.” Thus H. L. Mencken on the Third Symphony. But there’s a big hole in that very first page, put there by a boiling-mad composer as he brusquely scraped off the dedication to Napoleon in response to the erstwhile First Consul’s having been proclaimed Emperor in May 1804. Beethoven retitled the work as Sinfonia eroica, “composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.”

With that, the Buonaparte Symphony became the Eroica, a milestone along Western music’s journey from Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. Constructed on an epic scale and exploring an emotional range unprecedented in symphonic music, the Eroica thrilled some and alienated others. “If this symphony is not by some means abridged,” sniffed a London critic in 1829, “it will soon fall into disuse.” Happily for posterity, his advice was ignored.

This companion concert recording for Keeping Score: Beethoven’s Eroica, as seen on PBS, was recorded live in Davies Symphony Hall in May 2004.