Page 22 - Phil Nov8th program digital book

Program Notes

Symphony No. 8 in F Major. Op. 93 Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770 – 1827)
Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770 (and probably born the
day before) in Bonn and died in Vienna on March 26, 1827. His 27-minute Symphony
No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 premiered on February 27, 1814, in Vienna’s Redoutensaal with
the composer conducting.
Before he finished his Symphony No. 7, Beethoven was already sketching his No. 8,
which he completed in the fall of 1812. Beethoven often sketched and presented pairs
of symphonies together: his No. 2 had premiered on a concert that included his No.
1, the fifth and sixth premiered together on December 22, 1808, and the seventh
and eighth were sketched concurrently. The composer’s life in 1811-12 was exciting,
punctuated by historical events such as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, a European
depression caused by bad harvests, a series of Luddite machine-breaking riots in
England (defended by Lord Byron), and the first volume of Grimm fairy tales was
published. In the U.S., the Mississippi River dramatically reversed course due to an
earthquake, the Boston Gazette coined the term “gerrymander,” and the far-reaching
War of 1812 began.
Where the Seventh is large-scaled and luxurious, the Eighth is significantly shorter and
harkens back to the eighteenth-century classical symphonies of his teacher Haydn.
The premiere was led by the composer himself alongside his (more popular) sixth and
seventh symphonies, and audiences were slow to embrace it.
The opening movement (marked “con brio”) begins with a peal of laughter in F
major. Right away, Beethoven interjects a second, lyrical theme in A major. He drops
them both capriciously, plunging us into a stormy, dense development. The unusual
recapitulation buries the principal theme under a pile of repeated octaves and a
shrieking, raucous cacophony of high winds and strings: listen for the bassoons, celli,
and basses struggling to be heard. Beethoven found this funny; critics and conductors
often didn’t get it. When Gustav Mahler conducted Beethoven’s Eighth, he “retouched”
it to clear the way for the lower voices (not, in this case, “what Beethoven would do”).

Usually a staunch supporter of Beethoven, the composer and critic Hector Berlioz
would carefully describe the work as “modest” and “at least far superior to [Symphony
No. 1] in instrumental writing, rhythm and melodic style.” He is “amazed” at the “gentle
innocence” of the second movement, describing it as “the song of two children picking
flowers on a fine spring morning;” but it also ends strangely, with sudden silences
that interrupt its flow. The third movement is the most old-fashioned: an elegant
minuet in the style of Haydn that reminds us that although Napoleon’s world may
be falling apart, the world of courtly dance is still the norm. The finale is baffling,
brilliant, original, and witty. Note the surprising contrasts of key, as C is followed by
sudden C-sharp and/or D-flat, and then plunges into the most remote F-sharp minor
(summarized from Berlioz’s fantastic “Critical Study of the Symphonies of Beethoven”
in A travers chants, 1862).

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