Fidelio, my only opera and my largest work to that point, failed critically and financially in November 1805. I revised it, and the third version was well received in July 1814 and staged often after.
My Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in its last movement. It premiered in Vienna on 7 May 1824 to great acclaim, with the chorus singing the score I refused to simplify.
After Heiligenstadt I set out on 'a new way'. The Third Symphony, Op. 55 (1803–04), was longer and larger in scope than any previous symphony and opened my heroic middle period of music.
I compose, conduct and play the piano. I trained in the Classical style and my music drove the move into Romantic music, expanding the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet.
