As an admirer of Luigi Cherubini, an attentive follower of Gaspare Spontini’s dramatic daring, and a critical but deeply fascinated witness of Gioachino 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 Munich Chamber Orchestra. Heard alongside overtures from Cherubini’s Médée, Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, and Spontini’s Olimpie, Beethoven’s Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies appear newly charged with a theatrical urgency, dramatic impulse, and unparalleled intensity. The 3-CD album also includes Cherubini’s Symphony in D major and the world premiere recording of the alternate finale of the second movement of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony.