Beethoven composed his Second Symphony during the summer and autumn of 1802 and conducted the first performance on April 5, 1803, in Vienna. In June 1801, he had confessed to his friend Dr. Franz Wegeler, “For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf.” Nonetheless, as he wrote to his brothers in the infamous Heiligenstadt Testament, he didn’t fail to see the irony of  “an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in others.” This was the effrontery under which he composed his most energetic, joyful, and gregarious, Second Symphony.

At its premier a critic affirmed that “the First Symphony is better than the later one because it is developed with lightness and is less forced, while in the Second the striving for the new and surprising is already more apparent.” A rich and dramatic theme is slowly introduced by the first movement, followed by one of the longest slow movements in the composer’s repertoire. The third, a Scherzo: Allegro, maintains an unprecedented edge as it spurts nervous energy and in the end a fiery finale concludes the work, written in rondo form. Beethoven finished this boisterous finale only days before he confessed thoughts of suicide in the letter to his brothers. Hector Berlioz once remarked that "this Symphony is smiling throughout." It is assumed that the piece's verve perhaps provided Beethoven with comfort and eased his tumultuous emotions. Still, his contemporaries applauded the Second Symphony as a significant piece full of power and depth.

Beethoven composed the C major piano concerto in 1795 and was the soloist at its premiere performance on December 18, 1795, in Vienna. Tonight it will be performed by Seong-Jin Cho, an outstanding Korean pianist and winner of the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition. This is not Beethoven’s first piano concerto. A piece in B-flat was begun sometime around 1793 and both works were published in 1801, although in the reverse order. This C major concerto echoes the styles of Mozart and Haydn, while assimilating abrupt harmonic shifts that express Beethoven's distinct musicality. It follows the concerto variant of sonata form, containing three movements with alternate cadenzas possible at its end. The work is scored in the festive marching character of Mozart’s C major concertos with grand orchestral style and difficult virtuosic piano writing.