• Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
• Larghetto
• Scherzo. Allegro
• Allegro molto

Beethoven's Second Symphony was mostly written during Beethoven's stay at Heiligenstadt in 1802, at a time when his deafness was becoming more pronounced and he began to realize that it might be incurable. The work was premiered in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 5 April 1803, and was conducted by the composer. During that same concert, the Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives were also debuted. It is one of the last works of Beethoven's early period.

Beethoven wrote the Second Symphony without a standard minuet; instead, a scherzo took its place, giving the composition even greater scope and energy. The scherzo and the finale are filled with Beethovenian musical jokes, which shocked the sensibilities of many contemporary critics. One Viennese critic for the Zeitung fuer die elegante Welt (Newspaper for the Elegant World) famously wrote of the Symphony that it was "a hideously writhing, wounded dragon that refuses to die, but writhing in its last agonies and, in the fourth movement, bleeding to death." (Wikipedia)

Movements	Recording	Ensemble	Duration
Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
	Beethoven: 9 Symphonies	Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique	0:12:08
Larghetto
	Beethoven: 9 Symphonies	Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique	0:10:19
Scherzo. Allegro
	Beethoven: 9 Symphonies	Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique	0:04:26
Allegro molto
	Beethoven: 9 Symphonies	Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique	0:06:08