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Rating: Reviewing a work by Beethoven represents a challenging endeavor, especially when approached from the audiophile's perspective rather than the musician's. Nonetheless, I am keen to tackle it, starting from the very beginning with the first symphony composed by Ludwig in the mid-'90s of the 18th century and completed towards the end of '99 at nearly thirty years of age, which, musically speaking, was already considered a mature age. Indeed, Beethoven embarked on this type of composition, first performed in Vienna in 1800, rather late in the development of his illustrious career. Why? It's hard to say; my very modest opinion attributes it to ambition and the desire for competition, because yes, even back then there was strong rivalry: the champions in the field were two musicians of the caliber of Mozart and Haydn—the first one, having passed away young some years prior, had produced 36 symphonies, while the latter, much more long-lived and considered the father of this composition, had around twenty. Entrapped by this force of giants, who were friends and corresponded by letters, you can understand how the stimulus to produce such a work was irresistible and at the same time quite risky.
But Beethoven had to prove he was the greatest, or at least try, and thus he began to sketch the first movements and tackle the initial problem: that of fitting his ideas into the symphonic structure, generally composed of 4 non-prolix movements. The solution proved ingenious, even if conceptually simple; it was to develop the composition on two different planes: the deeper one, strictly anchored to the classical structure dictated by the illustrious predecessors mentioned above, and a more superficial one into which he could inject his originality. This concept, already noticeable in the first brief symphony, would characterize in a more decisive manner all the development of his more famous compositions.
Briefly, the auditory analysis of the movements: the first is characterized by a slow introduction, so much so that the time is marked as "Adagio molto", soon giving way to the "Allegro con brio", classically composed of exposition, development, and recapitulation with a final coda, featuring a strong string section pushing throughout, as typically happens in this kind of Beethovenian composition, with winds (woodwinds, horns, flutes, and oboe) scattered in the background. The second movement starts without an introduction, calmly, with the strings' sound to which, in a second moment, winds are added. It is a slow and lazy melody, decidedly eighteenth-century, in contrast with the first movement already projected towards what his music would be in the new century.
The third movement, "Allegro molto Vivace", is a marked recovery, essentially a Minuet with many repetitions, always with a distinct dominance of the full string section and a subsequent and always background intervention of the winds. The fourth movement is introduced "Beethoven-style", followed by an Adagio that enhances the subsequent "Allegro molto Vivace", which reprises themes from the first movement. In my listening, it is where a phase of undisputed string presence is followed by a theme of striking "contrast" with the winds, representing the best part of the entire composition, concluded with a recap and a fast final coda.
At this point comes the difficult part: how to "judge" the work. To do so, I rely on the "yardstick" I normally use for modern music; that is, Beethoven's "First Symphony" is certainly not one of his (numerous) masterpieces. It did not revolutionize the musical world of its time, undoubtedly proving inferior to the preceding symphonic production of Mozart and Haydn, nor does it represent even a secondary-level work for the author, but rather a still somewhat unripe work. Personally, it doesn't move me much; I don't find "unforgettable" points in it, although everything is in its proper place, so I consider 3 to be the correct rating.
In conclusion, the version listened to (preferred) is that of the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan in the (historic) 1963 version, more "vigorous" than the three subsequent editions, with the cover edition from 1981. I also have an edition by the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado in '89, good but a bit more "flat", and pardon the expression.
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