In 1810, Beethoven was hailed by the writer and composer Ernst Hoffmann in an influential review of the Allgemeinemusikalische Zeitung as the greatest of the three "Romantic" composers.

According to Hoffmann, he was ahead of Haydn and Mozart in this ranking. He wrote that in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony his music "sets in motion terror, fear, terror, pain and awakens the infinite longing that is the essence of romanticism."