It certainly won't be me to decree whether the Seventh or the Eighth is better, not only because I love them both but, above all because, I am unable to assert this or that.
I will therefore limit myself to providing a small chronicle of the matter.
Surely the Eighth, among the nine Beethoven symphonies, is the most controversial. Roughly speaking and with the benefit of hindsight, it can be said that the judgment of the general public is in contrast with that of many "insiders." The former prefers other Symphonies – not just the Seventh – while among the latter, many consider it the most "perfect" of all; let us think only of Maestro Noseda.
The aspect that leaves the general public perplexed is undoubtedly the brevity and conciseness, compared to the great heroic symphonies, and Beethoven's return to what was the Haydn-Mozartian symphony.
Obviously, Beethoven's conscious choice was not a flaw to be attributed to the Eighth, but a choice that, during that period of his compositional life, touched various other works: I am thinking of the Piano Sonata Opus 90, the String Quartet Opus 95 and, albeit more relatively, the Violin and Piano Sonata Opus 96. In all these masterpiece works, it can well be said that Beethoven renounced the large dimensions and the solemn and dramatic tone typical of the works of his heroic style, seeking a new one. In reality, this search ended in the great silence of the years between 1815 and 1816 and serves as a prelude to his greatest visionary masterpieces of his late age.
But let us return to the Eighth!
If on February 27, 1814, the date of its first performance, the Allgemeine Musikalisch-Zeitung wrote: "(...) the symphony did not seem quite satisfactory and the applause it received was not accompanied by that enthusiasm that distinguishes works that obtain universal consensus; in short - as the Italians say - it did not cause a sensation.", four years later, on January 17, 1818, it wrote instead: "The true lover of art welcomes with open arms this magnificent and brilliant work of the inexhaustible Beethoven, a work that is not only by no means inferior in style to his earlier and more rudimentary ones, but on the contrary perhaps surpasses many of his predecessors in variety, artistic conduct, novelty of ideas, and the extremely original use of all instruments; in other words, it is a worthy spiritual offspring of its truly exceptional creator: Judging such classical compositions represents one of the most gratifying moments in the life, generally not particularly pleasant, of a critic."
And what exactly did Beethoven think of this Symphony?
He, obviously, was aware of the intimate character of the Eighth and, precisely because of this – but not only for this – he gave it a particular position among his symphonic works. He attributed to this intimate character the responsibility for its lack of success with the public at the first performance and, as always, became quite irritated: "(...) it was not liked because it is much better than the others."
The composer was thinking of the numerous and refined novelties hidden within its pages, both in terms of instrumentation and in the symphonic transformation of ideas and effects that until then were considered purely chamber-like. For his contemporaries, all this proved to be unusual, something that is not so for us today. The public certainly did not feel the same sentiment for the Seventh, which is a Symphony in the tradition of that historical-musical moment.
For Beethoven, however, as a good innovator on a continuous journey, the Eighth represented artistic progress and, as such, could only become his favorite.
Pensate that it was precisely the Milanese who were the first to come into harmony with Beethoven on this subject. In fact, in 1818, when the aforementioned review was made, the Eighth was performed in Milan and to the public of the Milanese city: "it was liked a little more than the Seventh."
