Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in Bonn, Germany, on December 17, 1770, and died in Vienna, Austria, on March 26, 1827. The first performance of the Eighth Symphony took place at the Redoutensaal in Vienna on February 27, 1814. The Eighth Symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximate performance time is twenty-six minutes.

Beethoven began work on both his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies in 1811. After finishing the Seventh Symphony in June of 1812, Beethoven turned his full attention to the Eighth, completing that score on October 12. The premiere of the Eighth Symphony took place as part of a February 27, 1814, concert at the Redoutensaal in Vienna. The program also contained the Seventh Symphony—which had received its premiere the previous December 8—and the (then) wildly popular Wellington’s Victory.

Beethoven’s Eighth is the symphony that most emphatically reflects the composer’s humorous side. The Eighth also bears a kinship with another comic jewel—Giuseppe Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff (1893). In both works, the composers call upon their decades of experience. Beethoven and Verdi employ techniques they previously used for the composition of “serious” music to fashion masterpieces overflowing with playful humor. And, if the Eighth Symphony anticipates the future, it also pays tribute to the past. The work’s high spirits and economy of expression recall the greatest symphonic humorist of them all—Beethoven’s teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn.

The Symphony No. 8 is in four movements. The first (Allegro vivace e con brio) immediately establishes the energy and high spirits that predominate throughout. In place of the traditional slow-tempo second movement, Beethoven substitutes a playful Allegretto scherzando. The third movement is a minuet (Tempo di Menuetto) a court dance in triple meter. The horns (to playful triplet cello accompaniment) introduce a lovely interlude that serves as a minuet’s trio section. The third movement closes with a reprise of the minuet. The finale (Allegro vivace) begins with a device found in many Haydn symphonies. The strings play a scurrying, pianissimo figure that suddenly—and without warning—explodes with tremendous force. A beehive of activity, the finale concludes with an extended, and decidedly emphatic, series of chords.

program notes by Ken Meltzer