After so much conflict and misery, impending victory could be honored and celebrated. In June, the Duke of Wellington was triumphant against Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother, in the northern Spanish town of Vittoria, and within the year the Congress of Vienna was convened to reapportion Europe in the aftermath of France's defeat. Napoleon's occupations of Vienna in 18 had proven traumatic, but the tide had turned with the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. Paired with the Seventh was the first performance of Wellington's Victory, also known as the 'Battle Symphony.' The enjoyment of the event was hardly surprising given what most members of the Viennese audience had been through during the preceding decade. It was premiered at one of his most successful concerts, given on December 8, 1813, to benefit soldiers wounded in the battle of Hanau a few months earlier. Beethoven himself called it 'one of the happiest products of my poor talents.'Д«eethoven wrote the Symphony in 1811-12, completing it in April.

In scope and intensity, it is fully Beethovenian, and yet it does not place quite as many demands on the listener as does the 'Eroica.' The ambition of the first movement, beauty of the second, the breathlessness of the scherzo, and relentless energy of the finale did not fail to impress audiences. The reception was as animated as at the first time the Andante (A minor), the crown of modern instrumental music, as at the first performance, had to be repeated.' The Symphony's appeal is not hard to understand. The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported that 'the new symphony (A major) was received with so much applause, again. It also exerted extraordinary influence on later composers, as the slow movements of Schubert's 'Great' C-major Symphony and E-flat Piano Trio, Mendelssohn's 'Italian' Symphony, Berlioz's Harold in Italy, and other works attest.ДЄfter its premiere, the Seventh Symphony was repeated three times in the following 10 weeks at one of the performances the 'applause rose to the point of ecstasy,' according to a newspaper account. An example is the second movement of his Seventh Symphony, a piece that was often performed separately from the complete Symphony and that may have been Beethoven's most popular orchestral composition. These pieces tend to be much less familiar today than when they were the favorites of his contemporaries: Wellington's Victory, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, the Septet, and his best-loved song, 'Adelaide.' Occasionally, Beethoven wrote something that was immediately recognized as both artistically great and hugely popular. But there were also works that were truly popular or at least aimed to be so. Many of what are today considered Beethoven's most highly esteemed compositions, especially ones from late in his career, were initially received with a complex mixture of admiration, bewilderment, and resistance. Beethoven's imposing historical stature can obscure our appreciation of how in his own time he sought to juggle fame, popularity, and artistic innovations. Rossini was emerging as a new force in the musical world, and his prominence extended far beyond the opera house arrangements for every conceivable combination of instruments took his music into home, cafГ©, and concert hall.

That did not mean, however, that he was the most popular, published, or often performed. In spite of the symphony's popularity, Beethoven was not the most performed or most published composer of the time, and he competed for prestige with emerging composer Rossini.Д«y the mid 1810s Beethoven was recognized far and wide as the preeminent living composer.

The second movement of the Seventh often is performed separately from the complete symphony, and might have been one of Beethoven's most popular compositions. The celebratory symphony, dedicated to both Count Moritz von Fries and Russian Empress Elisabeth Aleksiev, was performed three times in 10 weeks following its premiere. Viennese audiences, miserable from Napoleon's 18 occupations of Vienna and hopefully awaiting a victory over him, embraced the symphony's energy and beauty. It was one of Beethoven's most successful concerts. The Seventh Symphony's premiere concert was performed to benefit the soldiers wounded a few months earlier in the battle of Hanau.

Beethoven 7th symphony slow movement