Rehearsal for Beethoven, Symphony No.7 in A major, op.92

After four years of symphonic silence, Beethoven presented Vienna with his Seventh Symphony in 1813. The first performance of this work was a spectacular event. The long awaited Seventh was completed in May 1812 when the Austrian capital was recovering from the French occupation. The defeat of Napoleon's armies made the concert an occasion for celebration, and this historical event helped ensure the work's enormous popularity and the composer's lasting fame. The Seventh Symphony is essentially rhythmic, rather then thematic, to such a degree that Wagner called it "an apotheosis of the dance". it is one of the best examples of how Beethoven used simple harmonies and filled them with energetic, repetitive rhythms, which never become monotonous because of the fresh harmonic progressions that accompany them. Karl Böhm rehearses the Wiener Symphoniker in this recording made in the mid 1960s.