Beethoven's First Symphony: A New Era Begins
Beethoven was 29 and already losing his hearing when he premiered his First Symphony at Vienna's Burgtheater on April 2, 1800. The program placed his work after a Mozart symphony and a Haydn oratorio excerpt, yet Beethoven's piece upstaged both with an opening chord that violated every convention. He began on a dominant seventh in the wrong key, a dissonance that made the audience shift in their seats before the music resolved into C major. Critics noted the excessive use of wind instruments and the unusually prominent role of the timpani. These were not flaws. They were signals that Beethoven intended to rewrite the rules of orchestral composition from his very first attempt.
April 2, 1800
226 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on April 2
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Juan Ponce de Leon made landfall near present-day St. Augustine on April 2, 1513, naming the land "La Florida" because he arrived during Pascua Florida, the Spa…
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J. S. Bach premiered his cantata "Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden" (BWV 6) in Leipzig on Easter Monday, weaving a luminous oboe melody through a medita…
Commodore William James shattered the perceived invincibility of the Maratha Navy by capturing the fortress of Suvarnadurg with a small squadron. This victory d…
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