Beethoven spent a relatively long time on his 5th Symphony. Thus, first sketches can already be found from as early as 1804, four years before the work was premiered in Vienna in December 1808. Not only impressive is its striking opening theme, letting everyone know immediately that this is Beethoven being played, but also its nickname “symphony of fate.” Nothing in the sources prefigures the much-cited “fate,” musically knocking here “at the door.” The autograph of the score and the set of parts prepared from it, including Beethoven’s revisions, serve as the main sources of this Urtext edition, together with the missing copy of the score, now extant only incomplete in photographs, and the original edition of the parts authorized by Beethoven. The new performance material is based on the recently published volume of the New Beethoven Complete Edition.

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