Listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

Beethoven’s Fifth is the best known and most frequently performed of all his symphonies. At its premiere in Vienna in 1808 with Beethoven directing, it captured with astonishing energy the clash of Enlightenment and Romantic principles that defined the period. The work was itself revolutionary. Two years after that first performance, E. T. A. Hoffman wrote in a review that Beethoven’s music “induces terror, fright, horror, and pain and awakens that endless longing which is the essence of Romanticism.” In this class we will explore the Fifth in detail to discover how Beethoven re-invents the Classical symphony as a Romantic narrative of struggle and triumph