Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 8 op. 93

Seemingly lighter than the Seventh Symphony, its sister work, and often in the shadow of the Ninth, "the Eighth, who throws the dice with expectations" (Peter Gülke), thinks musically about its own formal models – subtlely, self-ironically and so artfully that Beethoven did not compose a symphony for about ten years afterwards.

In his introduction, Peter Gülke explains Beethoven's listening expectations and opens up the inner logic of musical development. In addition, he uses selected passages in the manuscript to show how Beethoven worked, how he took notes and what questions arise for the execution. Martina Rebmann describes the path of the manuscript from Beethoven's possession to its inclusion in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

Beethoven wrote the four movements alternately on portrait and landscape paper. The facsimile in high-quality four-colour printing shows the autograph in its original size. The indication of the movement and folio numbers as well as the bars reproduced on the respective page makes it easier to look up specific passages in the work.