Friedrich Schiller van Beethoven said that a great poem is more difficult to set to music than a merely good one because the composer must rise higher than the poet – "who can do that in the case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier," wrote Beethoven. There are relatively few famous musical settings of Schiller's poems. Notable exceptions are Beethoven's setting of "An die Freude" ("Ode to Joy") in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, Johannes Brahms' choral setting of "Nänie" and "Des Mädchens Klage" by Franz Schubert, who set 44 of Schiller's poems as Lieder, mostly for
Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) Meyerbeer and Antonio Salieri, The Italian guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani played cello at the premiere. The piece was very well received, such that the audience demanded the "Allegretto" movement be encored immediately. Spohr made particular mention of Beethoven's antics on the rostrum ("as a "sforzando" occurred, he tore his arms with a great vehemence asunder ... at the entrance of a "forte" he jumped in the air"), and "the friends of Beethoven made arrangements for a repetition of the concert" by which "Beethoven was extricated from his pecuniary difficulties". The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets