Premiere of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1

Background. In 1799 Beethoven won a notorious piano 'duel' against the virtuoso Joseph Wölfl at the home of Baron Raimund Wetzlar, and the next year he similarly triumphed against Daniel Steibelt at the salon of Count Moritz von Fries. In 1799 he also completed his Septet (Op. 20), which was extremely popular during his lifetime, and his Pathétique piano sonata (Op. 13) was published that year. His First Symphony was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an early patron.

The Premiere Concert. For the premiere of his First Symphony, Beethoven hired the Burgtheater on 2 April 1800 and staged an extensive programme. Alongside the new symphony, the concert included works by Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven's Septet, and one of his piano concertos; the Septet, the Symphony, and the concerto were all then unpublished. The premiere took place at the K.K. Burgtheater in Vienna.

Aftermath and Significance. The symphony was published in 1801 by Hoffmeister & Kühnel of Leipzig. With premieres of his First and Second Symphonies in 1800 and 1803, Beethoven came to be regarded as one of the most important of the young composers following Haydn and Mozart, and by the end of 1800 his music was already much in demand from patrons and publishers.