Choral Fantasy (Beethoven) a rather troubled one; according to the composer's secretary, Anton Schindler, it "simply fell apart," a result most likely attributable to insufficient rehearsal time. Because of a mistake in the execution of the piece, it was stopped half way through and restarted. In Ignaz von Seyfried's words: The work includes a sequence of variations on a theme that is widely felt to be an early version of a far better known variation theme, namely the one to which Beethoven set the words of Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" in his Ninth Symphony. The two themes are compared below. \new Score
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