I love Beethoven Symphony #8, but for different reasons.  When I was
working as an intern for Conductor Maurice Abravanel while in college,
he told me he considered the Symphony #8 a totally cynical, angry,
frustrated work by Beethoven.  He broke so many conventions of the time.
When you listen to all the excesses, repeats, syncopation toys, and so
on, and tie the music into his hearing which was pretty much destroyed
by that time.

Listen to it for his cynicism, his anger, and his poking fun at the
concert going public who could hear.  That makes it an even more enjoyable
piece.

Ray Bayles