After four years of symphonic silence, Beethoven presented Vienna with his
Seventh Symphony in 1813. The first performance of this work was a
spectacular event. The long awaited Seventh was completed in May 1812 when
the Austrian capital was recovering from the French occupation. The defeat
of Napoleon's armies made the concert an occasion for celebration, and this
historical event helped ensure the work's enormous popularity and the
composer's lasting fame. The Seventh Symphony is essentially rhythmic,
rather than thematic, to such a degree that Wagner called it "an apotheosis
of the dance". It is one of the best examples of how Beethoven used simple
harmonies and filled them with energetic, repetitive rhythms, which never
become monotonous because of the fresh harmonic progressions that accompany
them.