Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827. Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36. Completed 1802, first performance April 5, 1803, in Vienna. Scored for 2 each flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, tympani, and strings.
By his thirtieth year, Beethoven was well-established in Vienna as a composer, teacher, and pianist. But trouble was lurking on the horizon in the form of his increasing deafness, and when repeated visits to a number of physicians did not produce a cure, he began to realize that he would lose the one sense that was indispensable to any musician.
In the summer of 1802 he entered a deep depression, and it was then that he wrote the famous ``Heiligenstadt Testament,'' in which he first confessed his affliction and the terror that it held for him. At the same time, though, he was working away on many compositions, including a new symphony.
As in his First Symphony of two years earlier, Beethoven was relatively cautious in the Second, remaining close to the standard set by Haydn (his teacher) and Mozart. There is virtually no sign of the changes that would soon be unleashed upon the musical world by the wild-haired young genius, nor is there a hint of his personal difficulties: the melodies are as sunny and carefree as one could ask. The premiere was not as successful as that of the First (one writer called the finale ``A repulsive monster, a wounded dragon''), but of course such reactions did not prevent the eventual acceptance of the work. In fact, the Second became so well thought of that years later, when Beethoven completed his massive Ninth Symphony, a well-meaning amateur suggested that the latter work might be improved if its finale were replaced with the final movement of the Second!
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