Joachim Eggert

Authenticating the Premiere Performance of his E-Flat Symphony

Abstract

Ludwig van Beethoven is generally acknowledged as the first composer to have employed trombones in a concert symphony with his Fifth Symphony in C Minor, which was premiered on 22 December 1808 in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien. Nevertheless, a little-known Swedish composer and conductor, Joachim Eggert (1779-1813), pre-empted Beethoven by eighteen months. On the basis of contemporary newspaper reports, it can be shown that Eggert conducted the first performance of his Third Symphony in E-flat Major, which calls for three trombones, on 14 May 1807 in Stockholm’s Great Knights’ Hall.