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Primary sourceNewspaper article25 January 1809

Review of the 22 December 1808 Concert

Friedrich Rochlitz · 25 January 1809

A newspaper review from January 1809 describing the concert where Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were first performed.

This is a contemporary account of how the public first heard two of Beethoven's most famous symphonies.

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Title page of a digitized volume of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, published in Leipzig and Winterthur in 1809. Text reads: Rochlitz, Friedrich; Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung; Leipzig ; Winterthur 1809; 4 Mus.th. 1800-11; urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10527959-0; VD18 90291972-001. Logos of Bayerische StaatsBibliothek and MDZ appear at top.
Friedrich Rochlitz, review in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 25 January 1809.

About this source

What it is

This is a review published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung on 25 January 1809, written by Friedrich Rochlitz. It discusses a concert held at the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808, where Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies premiered.

Why it matters

This review lets us see how audiences and critics of the time reacted to Beethoven's new music as it was first heard, rather than how later generations judged it after it became famous. It is a window into the musical culture of early 19th-century Vienna.

Look closer

  • Why might a review written just weeks after the concert be valuable to historians?
  • Who wrote this review, and what might have shaped his opinions?
  • What parts of the actual concert experience can a written review never fully capture?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ludwig van Beethoven on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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