The second movement shows 80 for the eighth note. The marking 2/4 for this Adagio assai however rightly implies that there are in fact two beats of 40. All marches are in two,- we only have two feet. A huge majority of conductors, searching for solemnity, still play this in a slow four, ignoring the 2/4 and forgetting that, until the middle of the 19th century, the eighth note was not a unit of measure.

In real life 40 is in fact the official speed of  of a military slow march in many armies. Our late Queen was borne about London by hundreds of royals, Ministers of State, Generals and troops at exactly 40 to the pace. It’s a noble speed, quite demanding over a mile or so. Try it much slower and you’ll probably fall over.

The third movement is a hunt, as the horns make clear in the Trio. Horses don’t gallop when hunting; it’s too tiring over a long distance. Instead they canter, which they can keep up for miles. 116 for the bar is a normal cantering speed. Because it remains always in one, with no small notes to divide it into three, it feels much more relaxed than the first movement.

The Finale’s riotous Allegro molto, at 152 to the quarter, seems an unlikely candidate for a dance. But at the twelfth bar we see why in fact Beethoven indicated the tempo as 76 to the half note. Because the melody gradually being revealed with a pizzicato joke is in quite a leisurely one. It is neither gallop, nor march, nor canter,  but a real dance, a Contretanz. It was a popular way to end a symphony. Haydn did it (S.103), Mozart did it (S.39), and Beethoven had already used the melody twice, once as the finale of the Prometheus ballet. All the performers and the audience would know what speed it should go. The metronome mark was well chosen.

PERFORMING TIPS

First Movement: Battle. Galloping horses of Generals and messengers, prove the 60mm marking. (Compare William Tell overture)

In those days everyone could recognise the speed of a trot, a canter,  or a gallop.

On-string accompaniment at opening,

where  all very hushed.

Action and reflection throughout.

Read the description of the battle of Austerlitz in Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Second Movement: A March in 2, not 4

    Noble, not wailing

    Rehearse the double bass opening alone: ON the beat until the third entry.

From the French ambassador with whom he was acquainted, Beethoven will have heard about the great mourning wartime processions in Paris at the turn of the century. This music seems touchingly to describe them.

The tempo of 40 per step is the official British Army Slow March.

Third Movement: The Hunt

     Bar groupings important: 4, 6, etc.

     Horses now canter.

Finale: Rejoice in Victory.

    but remember 2 quiet Fugues.

    This is of course a Contredanse.

     Return of mourning the dead not too slow.

     End not too fast.