Symphony no. 7 in A major, op. 92

The Seventh reached its first audience on 8 December 1813 at the hall of the University of Vienna, in a charity concert for soldiers wounded at Hanau; the orchestra included Spohr, Salieri, Hummel and Meyerbeer, and Beethoven conducted. The novelty on the programme was the battle piece Wellingtons Sieg, but it was the symphony that lasted, and the Allegretto had to be repeated on the spot. Rhythm drives the whole work — each movement locked to a single figure — which led Wagner to call it the apotheosis of the dance and others to assume the composer was drunk.