Interview and rehearshal with John Eliot Gardiner (part 5 of 9) - The South Bank Show

Profile of the conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his work with The Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. Gardiner travels to the South of France to recreate the spirit of the French Revolution with a local French village choir, and visits the birthplace of Hector Berlioz, the composer of "Romeo and Juliet".
The conductor Gardiner explain how Beethoven was influenced by French Revolution and how its slogan about liberty and revolution appears on his music. Then how Berlioz, as all romantic composers, was strongly influenced by Beethoven's music.
The SOUTH BANK SHOW: JOHN ELIOT GARDINER
Transmission date: Sunday May 12th, 1996
Country: Great Britain
Series/Slot: SOUTH BANK SHOW
Start time: 22:45
Stop time: 23:45
Duration: 60 mins.
Channel: ITV
Presenter: Melvyn Bragg
Director and Producer: Tony Knox
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[@figaro0127]

Wow!

[@panacomposer]

Agreed, he makes no claim. Being so passionate an adept to these ideals, and expressly so, the use of these patriotic songs seems plausible at the very least. Had he heard "Bastien et Bastienne" shortly before he wrote the opening of the Eroica? We don't know... but the same arpeggio is there... Don't know about the Mehul, though.

[@BillDeef]

Mehul was after Beethoven's Fifth; Gardiner is being a bit tendentious here. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. At most there is a Zeitgeist at work here.