It is not known exactly when Beethoven completed his First Symphony, as the autograph score was lost. It is known, however, when the symphony was first performed and what the critics thought of it. It premiered in Vienna in 1800, also on the program was a Mozart symphony, an aria and duet from Haydn’s Creation, an unspecified piano concerto by Beethoven, his Septet, and some improvisations at the piano by the composer. The critics were rather complimentary about all the works but the Beethoven symphony. The Eighth is the shortest of Beethoven’s symphonies, also probably the jolliest, with much of that “unbuttoned” humor so frequently ascribed to the composer.