Fantasy for piano, chorus and orchestra (C minor) op. 80

Beethoven composed the Choral Fantasy just before its première at the Theater an der Wien, as the final piece in his great concert of 22 December 1808. Owing to shortage of time, he improvised the piano fantasy during the concert. This same concert also featured the premières of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the aria 'Ah perfido' (op. 65) and parts of the C-major Mass. The long programme probably caused Beethoven to fall victim to every conductor's and composer's nightmare: he had to stop the Choral Fantasy and start again. The composition was finished just in time for the concert and was thus under-rehearsed and sloppily written out (the surviving music for the first performance contains a number of wrong measures). The performance resulted in utter confusion when some of the instruments lost their place. As Beethoven later told Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig on 7 January 1809, the musicians were enraged at him for interrupting the performance and shouting 'Start again!' (quoted from complete correspondence, 350). (J.R.)