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The FINALE from BEETHOVEN’s SYMPHONY N° 7 (BB73)
At the age of thirteen Ludwig van Beethoven (17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was already working professionally as a performer on the organ and harpsichord when he published a set of Variations containing themes which turned up again in his 7th Symphony some thirty years later. Other pre-composition sketches appeared in a notebook dated 1809.
During the period of writing the symphony … it was started in 1811, and finished in April 1812 … not only was Beethoven struggling with his worsening deafness, but he was forced on many occasions to shelter in the cellar of his brother’s house in Vienna, because of the effect of Napoleon's French Army’s artillery attack on the city, which it had occupied twice before, in 1805 and 1809.
The tide finally began to turn against the attempts of Napoleon, the “Little Corporal”, to “unify Europe”, with defeat firstly in 1812 in Russia, then at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, after which Vienna and Europe rejoiced greatly. The 7th Symphony was premiered at one of Beethoven’s most successful concerts, on December 8, 1813, to benefit soldiers wounded in the battle of Leipzig a few months earlier. Napoleon’s final Waterloo came two years later at the hands of the Duke of Wellington.
Beethoven’s 7th Symphony was an immediate success, and in spite of some of the violinists complaining at rehearsals that the piece was too difficult, it was repeated many times in the following months. It is impossible to imagine a more positive Finale than this whirlwind of perpetual motion. It throws itself at the audience with a headlong energy that never slackens. It’s power is rhythmic, its force in the hammering of motives, phrases and fanfares repeated time and time again. Once again Beethoven had written music of a kind never heard before, and which did not become common until well into the twentieth century.
Originally produced for the Fodens Band, and premiered at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in 2011, this arrangement makes demands on the players that are sometimes extreme. Conductors are at liberty to make minor adjustments to suit the available playing capability. Where conductors also wish to use a shortened version, there are possibilities that can be used according to taste. Again I am happy to leave that judgement to conductors in their own situations.
Howard Snell January 2012