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The finale is a concentrated rondo on only two themes. The first is hurled forth from the solo violin over a relentless rhythm in the strings and timpani. Then, the violins and cellos chant the defiant second theme. Both themes are developed with startling ingenuity to a brilliant end. © 1994 Columbia Artists Management Inc. Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Born December 16,1770 in Bonn Died March 26,1827 in Vienna “1 am Bacchus incarnate, to give humanity wine to drown its sorrow...He who divines the secret of my music is delivered from the misery that haunts the world.” - Beethoven While Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony has no subtitle or program, many musicians, musicologists and critics have attempted to find an appellative or running story to this work. Composers Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz both said that its music evoked “the spirit of a rustic wedding.” Richard Wagner went so far as to call it “The Apotheosis of the Dance.” This last view is the most populär one among those who have attempted to define the emotional content of this work. Evidently the great Isadora Duncan agreed with this perception; she danced to all but the first movement, and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo has presented a dance Version of the entire work. French composer Vincent D’Indy, however, disagreed, saying, “Nothing less than a pastoral symphony! The rhythm of the piece has nothing of the dance about it.” As for the composer himself, if he had any extra-musical concepts in mind, he never divulged his intentions; all we know is that he was very pleased with this work and called it “a grand symphony in A, one of my best works.” Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 was written in 1812, at the time when the Napoleonic War was raging. (This fact has led some commentators to espouse the far-fetched theory that this event had some influence in the conceptual content of the work.) The work was premiered in Vienna the following year. The occasion was a benefit concert for disabled Austrian and Bavarian soldiers who tried to cut off Napoleon’s retreat but were defeated at Hanau. Beethoven himself conducted the performance, “hardly, perhaps,” says Grove, “to its advantage, considering the symbolical gestures described by [Ludwig] Spohr, since he was by then very deaf, and heard what was going on around him with great difficulty.” Spohr’s account of the event is interesting:
