Egmont

Just been to a concert given by The Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera; the first piece they played was a favourite of mine: "Egmont Overture" by Beethoven.
It was one of the first records (a 78) I bought, a famous recording but I cannot recall who performed it.
Then my daughter studied it as part of her GCSE Music examination.
And thirdly I remember it being played in Berlin the day after the ghastly murder of the Jewish Olympic athletes. It seemed a highly suitable piece to play: solemn but majestic, beautiful but sad. The Berlin Philharmonic (I think it was) played it with great feeling; you could sense the players' sympathy in their faces. It was as if they were thinking: this is a tribute to innocent Jewish people who died at the hands of murderous brutes and here is our civilised response to it.