In another fabulous display of color, Beethoven wows us with a symphony largely in a fast 3/4 or slower 6/8 to dazzle us with whit and emotion just as he was born to do. His minor chromaticism and rocking back between E-flat and B-flat with a singable melody is just fabulous. If one could stay in this time forever and not go forward and just savor every moment, it would all be grand. To picture oneself all alone in the concert hall during the rehearsals for this classic piece would have been astounding. The main heroic messengers lie in the mid to high trumpet range and in the oboes which give a pleasant yet nasal tone that make it just barely sing over the strings, not to be obtrusive. Then in pure invention, Beethoven slides chromatically with striking dominant sevenths among other melodic differences. The hero’s got battles to fight—this is the interpretation. Also, the back-and-forth motion from E-flat major to E-flat minor hints that in every amount of light there is darkness just outside it. A transition to G-flat major would signal a resting place, but deceivingly so, as the texture soon goes back into the dark, and then light again with the same strolling melody as introduced at first. Then, later on the whole orchestra stands at attention, trumpets and other woodwinds proudly proclaiming the famous first movement melody.
The following movement predictably moves into the key of C minor, the relative minor key of E-flat. Here we are again with the hero and the temptations and battles he has yet to come up against. The third movement then picks up with a happy prancing, almost as if the hero’s victory has come. This movement is probably the most famous movement paired with the first. This is among the symphonies that started to propel Beethoven into further experimentation with harmony and form, progressing onto early Romanticism. It certainly is a gem of the classical period, a period itself of great invention.
