On This Day!

[Joy]

Dec. 8th, 1813; Almost totally deaf, Ludwig van Beethoven conducts the premiere of his Symphony No. 7 in a benefit concert at the University of Vienna.

[ruudp]

and what a symphony it is...even the piano version of liszt rocks and rolls with rythm....I just love it....esp the ending of the first movement and the whole last movement *pure rythmically speaking* offcourse the allegretto is a gem aswell*

[Peter]

This symphony might have had its premier in London as the long delay between its completion and first performance (18 months) may have been due to Beethoven's desire to visit England and obviously have a new work to present.

Spohr who was playing in the orchestra amongst a host of celebrities left a rather amusing (but sad) account of Beethoven's conducting. At one point he was ahead of the orchestra by as much as ten bars and during a soft passage he crouched down below the music stand only to emerge leaping into the air when he thought the forte should have begun, realising to his horror that the orchestra were still playing pianissimo, only finding his place again when the long awaited forte became audible to him.

Although the allegretto was always favourably received, the last movement frequently came in for strong criticism describing it as "the acme of shapelessness", "this absurd untamed music", "this delirium, in which there is no trace of melody or harmony, no single sound to full gratefully upon the ear."

Strange how even someone as obviously musical, young and forward thinking as Weber could have considered Beethoven ripe for the madhouse!