The Sunday Musical Offering - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major Movement 4

On this the Third Sunday of Lent, we celebrate the second of the Three B's who was, of course, Ludwig van Beethoven. I am not sure when I fell in love with the music of this great composer but I know that it was from an early age. The Seventh Symphony is one of my favorites.

Beethoven worked on this peice while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hopes of improving his health. The Symphony was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries. The work was premiered in Vienna on December 8, 1813 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau, with Beethoven himself conducting and double featured with the patriotic Wellington’s Victory. The Symphony was very well received, and the Second Movement, the allegretto, had to be encored immediately.

In the Fourth Movement, which can be seen here, Beethoven uses a very rare dynamic marking ƒƒƒ (called forte fortissimo or fortississimo) in his music. You will hear this in the coda at the end of the piece. Do enjoy Maestro Bernstein and the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Love One Another - Brian