Beethoven never remained in Vienna during the summer. The
discomforts of the city and his intense love for Nature urged him out
into the pleasantly wooded suburbs of the city, where he could live and
work in seclusion. Upon this occasion he selected the little village of
Hetzendorf, adjoining the gardens of the imperial palace of Schoenbrunn,
where the Elector, his old patron, was living in retirement. Trees were
his delight. In a letter to Madame von Drossdick, he says: "Woods, trees,
and rocks give the response which man requires. Every tree seems to say,
'Holy, Holy!'" In the midst of these delightful surroundings he found his
favorite tree, at whose base he composed the larger part of the oratorio,
as well as his opera "Fidelio." Schindler says: "A circumstance connected
with both these great works, and of which Beethoven many years afterwards
still retained a lively recollection, was, that he composed them in the
thickest part of the wood in the park of Schoenbrunn, seated between the
two stems of an oak, which shot out from the main trunk at the height of
about two feet from the ground. This remarkable tree, in that part of the
park to the left of the Gloriett, I found with Beethoven in 1823, and the
sight of it called forth interesting reminiscences of the former period."
The words of the oratorio were by Huber, the author of Winter's
"Unterbrochene Opferfest," and were written, with Beethoven's assistance,
in fourteen days. That more time and attention were not given to the text
was probably regretted by both poet and composer many times afterwards.
The first performance of the work in its entirety took place at Vienna,
April 5, 1803, at the Theater an der Wien, upon which occasion the
programme also included the Symphony in D (second) and the Piano Concerto
in C minor, the latter executed by himself. The oratorio was received
with enthusiasm, and was repeated three times during that year.

The libretto of the work is unquestionably defective in the most salient
qualities which should characterize the text of an oratorio, even to the
degree of extravagance and sensationalism. It fails to reflect the
sorrowful character of the scene it depicts, and the dramatic
requirements which it imposes are often strained, and sometimes border on
the grotesque. The theatrical style of the narrative was deplored by
Beethoven himself at a subsequent period. Marx, one of the keenest of
critics, says of the work:--

"The poet