The Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1811 and 1812, while improving his health in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz. The work is dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.

At its premiere at the university in Vienna on 8 December 1813, Beethoven remarked that it was one of his best works. The second movement, "Allegretto", was so popular that audiences demanded an encore.

When Beethoven began composing his Symphony No. 7, Napoleon was planning his campaign against Russia. After Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (and possibly Symphony No. 5 as well), Symphony No. 7 seems to be another one of his musical confrontations with Napoleon, this time in the context of the European wars of liberation from years of Napoleonic domination.

Beethoven's life at this time was marked by a worsening hearing loss, which made "conversation notebooks" necessary from 1819 on, with the help of which Beethoven communicated in writing.

The work was premiered with Beethoven himself conducting in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau. In Beethoven's address to the participants, the motives are not openly named: "We are moved by nothing but pure patriotism and the joyful sacrifice of our powers for those who have sacrificed so much for us."

The program also included the patriotic work Wellington's Victory, exalting the victory of the British over Napoleon's France. The orchestra was led by Beethoven's friend Ignaz Schuppanzigh and included some of the finest musicians of the day: violinist Louis Spohr, composers Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Antonio Salieri. The Italian guitar virtuoso Mauro Giulianiplayed cello at the premiere.

The piece was very well received, such that the audience demanded the Allegretto movement be encored immediately. Spohr made particular mention of Beethoven's enthusiastic gestures on the podium ("as a sforzando occurred, he tore his arms with a great vehemence asunder ... at the entrance of a forte he jumped in the air"), and "the friends of Beethoven made arrangements for a repetition of the concert" by which "Beethoven was extricated from his pecuniary difficulties".

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._7_(Beethoven)