When listening now to a work that's a pillar of the orchestral repertoire, it's hard to imagine the shock of the new. Yet when BEETHOVEN unleashed his 3rd Symphony in its public premiere on April the 7th, 1805 following two private airings for patrons, it was baffling for many.
One critic admitted the work has “very daring ideas... very powerfully carried out” but also noted the “inordinate length and extreme difficulty of execution.” They continued: “There is no lack of striking and beautiful passages in which the force and talent of the author are obvious; but on the other hand the work seems often to lose itself in utter confusion. … The Symphony would gain immensely if Beethoven would decide to shorten it and introduce into the whole more light, clarity and unity... There were very few people who liked the symphony.”
Of course the symphony has embedded in its mythology the tale of its dedication – initially to Napoleon Bonaparte. According to a student, on Napoleon's declaring himself Emperor, Beethoven tore the title-page and let fly, crying “He will trample all the Rights of Man and only indulge his ambition … and become a tyrant.”
This version of events conveniently ignores Beethoven's only too-human motivations. Although Beethoven had long intended to name the symphony after Bonaparte, he quickly dropped that plan when he learned that Prince Lobkovitz would pay him handsomely for the same honour. Later, after he had ripped up the title page, Beethoven temporarily recanted when he realized that a Bonaparte symphony would be just the thing for his upcoming trip to Paris.
