As an admirer of Cherubini, an attentive follower of Spontini's dramatic daring, and a critical but deeply fascinated witness of Rossini's public success, Beethoven was shaping his language in a musical landscape in which the symphony was in constant dialogue with the opera. This fertile state of tension has been newly uncovered by Enrico Onofri and the Munchener Kammerorchester: heard alongside Italian overtures of the time, Beethoven's great symphonies appear newly charged with a theatrical urgency, dramatic impulse and unparalleled intensity.