Ludwig van Beethoven began writing his Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36, during one of the most productive and at the same time the most depressed periods of his life. His Viennese period between 1802 and 1812 is richest of his career so far. It was then that he composed six of his nine symphonies. He received numerous commissions for new works.
In 1801, when Beethoven was working on his Second Symphony, dedicated to his patron Prince Karl Lichnowsky, he was also enjoying already published works. It was during this time he wrote the famous “Moonlight” Piano Sonata Op. 27, and his ballet score The Creatures of Prometheus, Op.43 was a resounding success, with 23 performances from 1801-1802.
Beethoven’s letters from 1801-1802 shed light on the optimism in his Second Symphony. In letters to his close friends physician Franz Gerhard Wegeler and Karl Amenda, the composer describes his gradual deafness. He expresses his ambitions and declares, “I will seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me completely.”
The political events also refracted on the composer’s creative spirit and music. It was a time when Europe was on the brink of war with France and Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven was heavily influenced by Bonaparte’s revolutionary ideas as well as French march music. Some of these sentiments can be heard in his Second Symphony, especially in the orchestration. But, as is well known, after Napoleon’s proclamation as Emperor the composer was disappointed and crossed out “to Bonaparte” in the dedication of his Third Symphony (1806).
Despite the rapid deterioration of his hearing and a increasing feeling of isolation from society, Beethoven produced an optimistic work, imbued with his strength and determination to defeat Fate. Even Hector Berlioz commented in 1862 that ‘everything in this symphony smiles’. The composer succeeded in keeping his music largely free of his wrenching anguish.
Beethoven was often criticized by his contemporaries for seeming to value novelty over beauty. Most of the Second Symphony was composed in the summer of 1802, when Beethoven moved to the Viennese suburb of Heiligenstadt. In October he wrote a letter, a moving personal confession to his brothers Karl and Johann, known as his Heiligenstadt Testament. He informed them that his hearing was deteriorating and bequeathed them his instruments: ‘I look forward to death with joy,’ Beethoven says. And he admits that he had begun to hear with difficulty as early as 1796, at the beginning of his career.
Although not one of Beethoven’s most performed symphonies, and his Third Symphony is usually cited as the beginning of the composer’s innovative style, Symphony No. 2 holds an important place in the composer’s oeuvre-its inspired pathos foreshadowing the heroic style and new symphonic expression of the Eroica.
Beethoven was often criticized by his contemporaries for seeming to valueto value novelty over beauty. That was a theme of several reviews of his Second Symphony, following its premiere April 5, 1803, on a mega-concert in the Theater an der Wien that also included the premieres of the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives and the Third Piano Concerto (played by the composer), as well as a performance of the First Symphony, to which the Second was unfavorably compared. Not surprisingly, compared to the First, the Second was received with reticence.
But Beethoven’s novelties are remarkably consistent. Аs distinct as each symphony is, they are clearly interlocked in expression and invention. The brooding majesty of the Second Symphony’s slow introduction looks back to Mozart – particularly his “Prague” Symphony, also in D – and Haydn, but it also prophesies the opening of Beethoven’s own Fourth and Seventh Symphonies. Its novelties – of proportion and harmonic detail – are also internally consistent, reflected throughout the Symphony, especially the extended coda to the finale.
Dramaturgically, the symphony follows the classical four-movement cycle.
The first movement (Adagio molto – Allegro con brio) begins darkly, but overall the sonata allegro is full of energy and vitality. The introduction is much longer than that of the First Symphony, it is full of dramatic contrasts, melodic variety and, like Mozart’s ‘Prague’ Symphony, presents the complex tonal plan of the whole work.
The contemplative Larghetto is one of Beethoven’s longest slow movements. It is a beautiful contrast in the cycle, standing out for its elegant melodies and more chamber-like orchestration.
Rather than an exquisite minuet, Beethoven builds the third movement as a scherzo (Scherzo. Allegro vivo) full of lively energy. The fast tempo, crisp articulations, shifting metric accents, and frequent changes in dynamics and registers recall the vitality of the first movement. In contrast to the first movement scherzo, which is predominantly in minor, the pastoral trio is in major, full of light.
The fourth movement (Allegro molto) is a vigorous finale, woven with Beethoven jokes that continue the theme of the joy of life in rhetorical relief in the scherzo with various original compositional devices employed: unfinished phrases in the dialogues between the various instruments, changing accents, rhythmic choppiness, etc. The extensive coda ends with a bright triumphant D major finale. This approach was Beethoven’s vision in his future symphonies, and one followed by 19th -century composers.