Beethoven and the Symphony

Concert Notes

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
– Ludwig van Beethoven
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany
Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria

This work was premiered on April 5, 1803, in Vienna with the composer conducting. The score calls for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, with timpani and strings.

Ludwig van Beethoven was well established in Vienna as a major composer by the year 1800. His reputation as the leading pianist had been sealed when he trounced the German pianist Daniel Steinbelt in a public piano competition and audiences were eager to hear him play. Beethoven’s new works were highly anticipated events. In 1801, had just composed his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, and had written the celebrated Moonlight Sonata. Perhaps more importantly, his first set of String Quartets, Opus 18, was published. Beethoven wrote to a friend the same year, “I am only a little satisfied with my previous works. From today on, I will take a new path.” The meaning of this statement has usually been taken at face value. In short, Beethoven felt that he could do better. However, consideration should be given to a possible deeper, more complex meaning.

There was only one aspect of his life that was not enviable – he had noticed in 1799 that he could not hear as well as he once did. As he described it in the harrowing confession, called the “Heiligenstadt Testament,” that he wrote to his brothers in 1802:

“How could I declare the weakness of a sense which in me ought to be more acute than in others - a sense which formerly I possessed in the highest perfection, perfection such as few in my profession enjoy, or even have enjoyed. No, I cannot do it … I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back.”

Beethoven certainly realized that this malady would affect his compositions. Could the “new path” have been his statement of resolve to conquer his greatest fears by writing them into his scores?

When comparing Beethoven’s pieces before 1802 with those afterward, certain differences become apparent. The earlier works are much more aligned with the Classical principles of formal balance, but the later pieces are more harmonically adventurous, less chained to symmetry, and exhibit more emotional directness than their predecessors. This new aesthetic is Beethoven’s “new path,” described by one musicologist as “new wine in old bottles.” Of course, Beethoven’s new approach was most obviously apparent in the Eroica Symphony, which was premiered privately the following year.

This new aesthetic of Romanticism was also different in the source of inspiration of musical works. The Classical ideal found inspiration in religious and social ideals, as well as in ancient mythology. While Romanticism drew upon the same inspiration from time to time, much of the impetus for these later works was personal experience.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, composed in 1801 and 1802, stands firmly in both worlds. Beethoven realized his impending deafness, but still maintained the Classical form that he had mastered to a higher degree than any of his contemporaries. For a composer trained in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, it was just the way things were done. The break with Classicism is found in the music – the inventive melodies and daring harmonies that fill the form.

This new work was completed after Beethoven returned to Vienna from Heiligenstadt with the realization that his hearing would not improve. In an effort to raise awareness of his music, and likely to raise money, Beethoven organized a huge concert to be held in April of 1803. His new symphony would be performed for the first time along with the premieres of his Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. All three works were successful.

Beethoven’s Second Symphony opens with a slow introduction, adagio molto, that implies a somber tone for the work . Minor and major keys compete for dominance and eventually a bright D major wins as the allegro con brio main body of the movement begins with a quiet flourish. Beethoven retains the instrumentation of the Classical symphony with winds in pairs augmented by timpani and strings. However, this movement in traditional sonata form displays gravitas that is missing from most symphonies of the Classical Period. A lively coda ends the movement .

The second movement is a lengthy Larghetto of transcendent beauty . Like the first movement and the finale, it is cast in a traditional sonata form. Although Beethoven’s writing is melodic, this movement is not without the proverbial dark clouds threatening upon the horizon . However, the final measures resume the bright A major aura of sunshine.

For the first time, Beethoven uses the designation of scherzo in the third movement of this symphony. Literally meaning “joke,” this is a good-natured romp full of rustic humor and dynamic contrasts . Beethoven could not have known that the scherzo would become the de rigueur form of symphonic third movements (although they sometimes appear in the second position) for Romantic symphonies, replacing the Classical minuet.

Beethoven’s bustling finale raises the bar for humor in symphonic form – an obvious bow of deference to Joseph Haydn, for whom the composer held high esteem. As his valedictory movement in a Classical symphony, the finale boasts all of the hallmarks of Beethoven . It is filled with dynamic contrasts and delightful orchestrational devices – note the charming flute and violin chirps that spice the coda with laugh-out-loud humor . It is not difficult to understand how revolutionary this symphony was to audiences in 1803. A Viennese critic in 1804 saw this work as "a crass monster, a hideously writhing, wounded dragon that refuses to die and, though bleeding in the finale, furiously thrashes about with its stiffened tail." Oh, how wrong he was!

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)
– Ludwig van Beethoven

Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany
Died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

The work was premiered in a private concert at Prince Lobkowitz’s Vienna palace in late 1804. It was first performed publicly on April 7, 1805, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna with Beethoven conducting. It is scored for pairs of woodwinds, three horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

When the French Revolution exploded in 1789, Beethoven resided in his birth city of Bonn. As an artistic and politically aware young man, he was attuned to the revolutionary cause because of the large number of French refugees passing through the city. The triumph of the common man over aristocratic oppression is a theme that resounds in much of Beethoven’s music.

Probably the most familiar story of the composer’s association with this cause centers on his Eroica Symphony. The work was originally to be dedicated to Napoleon – an idea first suggested to him in 1798 by General Bernadotte, the French ambassador to Austria. Prior to crowning himself Emperor on May 18, 1804, Napoleon was widely regarded as a champion of the peasant and as an advocate of the rights of man. The Eroica Symphony was completed in the spring of 1804 and was destined to be the Bonaparte Symphony until Beethoven heard of Napoleon’s egotistic and tyrannical accession to the throne. The traditional tale, as recorded by Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries, recounts that the composer ripped apart the title page.

“In this symphony Beethoven had Bonaparte in mind, but as he was when he was First Consul. Beethoven esteemed him greatly at the time and likened him to the greatest Roman consuls. I as well as several of his more intimate friends saw a copy of the score lying upon his table with the word ‘Bonaparte’ at the extreme top of the title page, and at the extreme bottom ‘Luigi van Beethoven,’ but not another word. Whether and with what the space between was to be filled out, I do not know. I was the first to bring him the intelligence that Bonaparte had proclaimed himself Emperor, whereupon he flew into a rage and cried out: ‘Is he then, too, nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition. He will exalt himself above all others, become a tyrant!’ Beethoven went to the table, took hold of the title page by the top, tore it in two, and threw it on the floor. The first page was rewritten and only then did the symphony receive the title Sinfonia eroica.”

Reis was mistaken about the addition of the title Sinfonia eroica, as musicologists know that this description was not attached to the work until its publication two years later. At the same time, the dedication was changed to, “Composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man.”

While Eroica (Heroic) describes the subject of Beethoven’s work, it could also refer to the revolutionary character of his music. Lasting nearly twice as long as any other symphony to date, this work shatters any premise of Classical style. The symphony opens with two accented fortissimo E-flat major chords, violently stabbing the silence and leaving no doubt as to the tonality of the work. The unpredictable mammoth first movement unfolds with a triadic theme in the lower strings , giving way to a long and stormy transition section. The clarinets and oboes present the lyrical second theme .To close the exposition, Beethoven introduces yet another melody, this time in the guise of a codetta . The development section is longer than most entire first movements of Beethoven’s time. New material again turns up and extensive fragmentation of the previous themes fills this section. Harmonic clashes and seemingly wrong notes occur freely . After the customary recapitulation, Beethoven launches an enormous coda, lasting nearly as long as the entire symphony to this point and acting as a second development section.

The funeral march, in rondo form, is military in nature with its dotted rhythms , and resembles the music of French Revolution composers. The lively scherzo begins with pianissimo strings and shifting rhythmic patterns . The rousing trio features a noble fanfare played by three horns .

The finale is a theme and variations drawn from Beethoven’s own ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus . The twelve variations span nearly every style of the day and grow in complexity as the movement progresses. The central fugue is proof of Beethoven’s mastery of contrapuntal technique and provides increasing tension . The coda is a triumphant final statement of heroism – both historical and musical .