Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808

The Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808 was a benefit concert held for Ludwig van Beethoven at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna that featured the public premieres of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy. The performers were a pickup orchestra, a chorus, vocal soloists, and Beethoven as conductor and piano soloist. The concert was held in a very cold hall, lasted too long (about four hours), and showed poor standards of performance, thus providing a very shaky launch for works that eventually came to be recognized as masterpieces. Beethoven biographer Barry Cooper calls the concert's content the "most remarkable" of Beethoven's career.