Arturo Toscanini (Courtesy: fineartsamerica.com)

The November, 1951, Carnegie Hall recording by Arturo Toscanini: Still unparalleled in bringing out the power, violence, the remarkable modulations through semitonal shifts of single notes, and vehemence of the rhythms.

Basil Lam, in his 1966 essay on the Beethoven symphonies, edited by Robert Simpson, writes, “With this composition Beethoven lifted to the limits of human capacity his creations based on the principle of harnessing the power mysteriously inherent in tonality combined with cumulative rhythms. Of the latter a final word may be given to the metrical units which lie behind the themes and give a unifying character to the whole symphony. They are: first movement —∪—, second movement —∪∪, scherzo —∪, finale —∪∪.”

This is a work whereby and wherein art intensifies and changes how one regards reality. There is a most interesting analysis of the symphony by Hector Berlioz. The Allegretto‘s influence on Schubert’s entr’acte for Rosamunde and his string quartet in A minor is quite clear.