Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony emerged at a biographical crossroads, between his definitive establishment as a leading composer and the onset of increasing isolation caused by his advancing deafness. At the time of its premiere, it was the second-longest symphony ever written, surpassed in scale only by Beethoven’s own Third Symphony, ‘Eroica’. Since its first performance in 1813, there has never been a period in which The Seventh hasn't counted among the composer’s most popular works.