The music won over listeners at its very first performance in 1813. The audience at its premiere essentially halted the concert until the orchestra agreed to repeat the riveting second movement.
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Watch Ivan Fischer conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony:
Must-hear recordings
Some of CPR Classical's favorite recordings of Symphony No. 7:
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Host Monika Vischer on Symphony No. 7:
The memorable hooks aren’t quite as catchy as the opening to the Fifth, the Ode to Joy of the Ninth or strains of the Sixth that Disney helped make famous in the 1940 animated film “Fantasia.”
But listen to this work all the way through and see if you can keep your feet from moving.
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