On 2 April 1800, at 6:30 PM, the 29-year-old Beethoven held a large income-generating benefit concert for himself. This was Beethoven’s “first public appearance for his own benefit in Vienna, and, so far as is known, anywhere except in Prague.” (Thayer / Forbes, p. 254–5)
Beethoven’s 2 April 1800 concert featured:
· A Mozart symphony
· Excerpts from Haydn’s Creation
· A Piano Concerto (Opus 15?)
· The Opus 20 Septet
· A pianoforte improvisation
· “A new grand symphony with complete orchestra”
This was the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.
By the late 1700s, the symphony had become a major public statement for composers. Mozart had composed 41 of them, the last few exceptionally powerful, and Haydn wrote 104 symphonies, the final 12 specifically for the London audience during his two tours of England.
Traditionally, the first movement of a symphony had been its most important part, but that was changing. “Beethoven was the first composer to appreciate the magnitude of the difficulty of creating a truly symphonic finale, once the symphony had taken on its late-Classical characteristics. The symphony, as a grand, teleological form, now demanded a strong and affirmative conclusion, whereby the forward thrust of the previous movements would culminate in a bold and sophisticated ending, while retaining something of the more popular, dance-like styles associated with the finales of early symphonies.” (Barry Cooper, “Beethoven,” p. 75)
Beethoven was grappling with this problem while sketching his first symphony when sometime around the end of 1799 he decided to move his first-movement theme to the last movement: With that change, “the finale acquired something of the weightiness customarily associated with the opening movement, thus providing an important step in a shift in symphonic writing towards a more end-oriented structure.” (Ibid, p. 94)
Beethoven dedicated his first symphony to Baron Gottfried von Swieten, one of his patrons in Vienna and a man who also figures in the careers of Mozart and Haydn. Swieten wrote (or adapted) the libretti for Haydn’s late oratorios “The Creation” and “The Seasons.”
On paper, Beethoven’s first symphony is structured traditionally: The two outer fast movements have Adagio introductions, and the two inner movements are a slow movement Andante Cantabile and a Minuet.
The first movement opens with a distinctive pizzicato strings and woodwinds chord, but Beethoven toys with the listener by seeming to resolve dominant-7th chords without quite hitting the right key of the movement.
One of the interesting aspects of the 2nd movement Andante is the use of timpani almost as a solo instrument, pounding out a dotted rhythm pattern that is then picked up by the bassoons and strings. Perhaps Beethoven will explore the timpani more in future works.
Although the 3rd movement is labeled as a Minuet and is seemingly in traditional minuet-and-trio form, the tempo is too fast and the structure is unbalanced. This is really a Scherzo, which Beethoven will use increasingly in his multi-movement works.
“We feel that with this movement of his First Symphony Beethoven is in process of discovering his ‘Scherzo’ personality, his way of harnessing incessant rhythmic repetitions of short figures within a context of relentless forward motion.” — Lockwood, “Beethoven’s Symphonies”
Like the first movement, the final movement begins with a slow introduction, but Beethoven quickly truncates it as if eager to launch into the unflagging propulsion of the finale.
#Beethoven250 Day 123
Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Opus 21), 1800
An appropriately modestly sized orchestra conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, currently Music Director of the Houston Symphony. Notice the valve-less horns and trumpets.