Leonore Overture no. 3, op. 72b

Beethoven rewrote the overture to his only opera four times. The third version dates from the 1806 revision of Leonore, and is the longest and most symphonic of them — a slow introduction quoting Florestan's dungeon aria, an offstage trumpet call answering the arrival of the minister, and a coda of released energy. Its very completeness pushed it out of the theatre: by 1814 Beethoven had replaced it with the lighter Fidelio overture. It survives instead as a concert piece, and, in a tradition begun by Mahler, as an interlude before the final scene.