Vienna - City of contradictions: I'm currently stuck in the 2nd movement of the 7th Symphony

Beethoven spent 35 of his 56 years in Vienna, my hometown. I wondered why he made this city the center of his life and work.

Why Vienna? This in-between of city and village, of complaining and euphoria, of coziness and longing for death? Of course, his patrons were in Vienna and - quite pragmatically - he could live well here. But wasn't it also the passion of his restless nature, the torn nature, the contradictions? Vienna is still a city of contradictions today and perhaps that is why my city also shares in the power and great variety of his music.

Beethoven moved over 60 times in Vienna. He was considered a very restless tenant, who frequently changed residence within the city and suburbs due to conflicts with neighbors, loud music, or the desire for change. 

This inner restlessness of the seemingly harmonious city and its inhabitants seems very familiar to me.

I want to make the passion and emotion in Beethoven's works my theme. I don't know yet in what form of expression, but I can feel it when I listen to his piano sonatas and symphonies, for example. I'm currently literally stuck in the very simple 2nd movement of the 7th Symphony.

Note: Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A major op. 92 was composed between 1811 and 1812 and was dedicated to Moritz Reichsgraf von Fries. The premiere took place on December 8, 1813, in Vienna. In the year 2018, a previously unknown copy of the score became known with the dedication to Antonie Brentano: "To my highly esteemed friend Antonie Brentano from Beethoven." Not a few Beethoven researchers suspect in her the addressee of Beethoven's famous letter 'to the Immortal Beloved.