While Symphony No. 6 is calm and peaceful, Symphony No. 7 is on the other end of the spectrum, characterized as the most celebratory and rhythmic of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. His first drafts show that, from the beginning, Beethoven envisioned making rhythm—and not melody—the central focus of the work. Each movement is dominated by a rhythmic motif that gives it a specific colour. The euphoria of the finale inspired Richard Wagner to write these famous words: “This symphony is the apotheosis of the dance itself: dance in its most exalted form, the most blissful of physical movement made manifest in sound.”
After having written six symphonies at regular intervals between 1800 and 1808, Beethoven waited more than three years before starting to write Symphony No. 7. But the composer was still productive during this symphonic hiatus, both in his musical and personal life. He met Antonia Brentano in 1810, one of the two women thought to be his “eternally beloved.”
The seventh was completed in the winter of 1812. Despite his increasing deafness, Beethoven refused to let anyone else conduct his works, so he was on the podium for the piece’s premiere in December 1813. It was a festive performance, and the orchestra was filled with some of the era’s most famous musicians: Salieri, Spohr, Moscheles, Hummel, Meyerbeer… Even the inventor of the metronome, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, was there.
“The performance was absolutely masterful, despite Beethoven’s confused and comical conducting,” wrote composer and violinist Louis Spohr. “It was evident that the poor deaf master was no longer able to hear the piano passages in his music.” Nevertheless, the concert was a great success, and the second movement was encored in its entirety.
But not everyone was impressed. One can’t help but smile knowing that Clara Schumann’s father, Friedrich Wieck, was highly critical of the piece, calling it “the work of a drunk.”
“I am the Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.”
– Ludwig van Beethoven
