Conditions for the performance of symphonic music in the Vienna of 1808 were hardly optimal, as

Kahn explains:

Even a grand public concert could draw only from the aristocracy and the city's small middle class,
[estimated at] no more than 2.5 percent of Vienna's 200,000 to 250,000 residents. The standard
price for a concert ticket was two gulden ... which was more than a week's salary for a laborer.
Musicians could not give academies in the summer, when the nobility fled the dust and heat of
Vienna to their country estates, and during the fall and winter the theaters were given over to
rehearsals and performances of operas, the high status form of musical production. The only time
available for academies was during Advent and Lent, when operas were forbidden. During these six
weeks, competition for halls was fierce, and theater managers could and did refuse nights to
Beethoven in favor of mediocrities.[2]

The Theater an der Wien as it appeared in 1812. The theater still exists and thrives today as a major
venue for opera.

In Vienna, the theaters were either under government sponsorship (the Burgtheater and the
Krntnertortheater, both in central Vienna) or were private enterprises located in the outer districts
of the city. Beethoven's chosen venue, the Theater an der Wien, was in the latter category. It was a
very substantial building, described as "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of
its age."[3] It had opened to rave reviews in 1801; for instance, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
called it the "most comfortable and satisfactory in the whole of Germany" (which meant at the time,
"all German-speaking lands").[4] Beethoven had already premiered several of his most important
works to date in this theater; for a listing see Theater an der Wien.

During 1807 and 1808, Beethoven had provided his works and services to a series of charity concerts
at the Theater an der Wien. The Theater's director, Joseph Hartl, ultimately permitted Beethoven to
use the venue for the 22 December 1808 concert, which was for Beethoven's private benefit.
Beethoven had lobbied for a private benefit concert for many monthsin return for his participation
in the charity concertsand expressed frustration at what he perceived to be Hartl's procrastination
on the matter.[5]

The Wiener Zeitung carried an advertisement for the concert on 17 December 1808, labelling it a
"musical Akademie";[6] this was the common term for a concert in Beethoven's time.