The descriptions of "Wellington's Victory" in the last two MMDs were
very interesting to me since less than a month ago I bought a new CD
called Symphonic Battle Scenes, featuring that very piece.  The music
is performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Lorin Maazel.

The performance was recorded in Dolby Surround sound, so it is quite
an experience to listen to.  I got my copy through the Musical Heritage
Society:

     http://www.musicalheritage.com/

but it is an RCA recording.  According to the liner notes:

    "Wellington's Victory or the Battle of Vittoria, Op. 91, was the
result of a scheme by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (1772-1838) to team his
skills as a mechanical inventor (he created the first metronome) and
impresario with Beethoven's musical celebrity.  One of the more elabor-
ate of Maelzel's numerous musical automata was the "Panharmonicon," a
contraption that activated military band instruments by means of a
bellows-mechanism and a revolving pronged cylinder, like a music-box.

    "Noting the veritable flood of compositions that had latterly
sprung up in tribute to battles waged against the Napoleonic foe
(Austerlitz, Wurzburg, Marengo, Jena, etc.), Maelzel seized on the
defeat of the French army at Vittoria in June 1813 as an occasion for
a contribution by Beethoven for his Panharmonicon.  The master complied
with the suggestion, and he appears to have followed Maelzel's detailed
programmatic scenario.

    "With an eye to wider dissemination, Beethoven also arranged
the work for full orchestra (with additional stage-bands and special
effects).  Eventually, he fell into an extended legal dispute with
Maelzel over the performing rights to Wellington's Victory, which, from
the time of its orchestral premiere (in a benefit concert for wounded
veterans of a battle at Hanau), proved to be a wild public success.
(Beethoven also published detailed instructions for the disposition
and deployment of the orchestral forces, military "sound-machines," and
stage bands, as well as on tempo and other performance matters, which
have been consulted in the present performance.)

    "This recording follows the description of the premiere by Ludwig
van Beethoven in December 1815.  Cannon shots and volleys are executed
by big drums and rattles--in regard to number, dynamics and sequence
exactly as noted by Beethoven.  The military drums and trumpets
militaire in E-flat and C approach from a distance.  They position
themselves opposite each other with the English on the left, the French
on the right."

The tracks on the CD are:

  3    Drums and trumpets on the English side  (0:58)
  4    Marcia:  Rule Britannia  (0:44)
  5    Drums and trumpets on the French side  (0:50)
  6    Marcia:  Marlborough  (0:57)
  7    Invitation and Response  (0:24)
  8    Battle  (2:02)
  9    Storm;  March  (2:46)
 10    Victory Symphony  (7:02)

The other selections on the CD are Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien and
the 1812 Overture, and Franz Liszt's The Battle of the Huns.  It is a
neat CD, especially if you listen on a Dolby Prologic system.

Tom McAuley
Hutchinson, Kansas