The third version of Beethoven’s famous work I have, and by far the best. Beethoven’s 9th symphony is according to many critics his best work, if not the best in all of classical music. The closing fourth part, complete with choir and solo voices, just blows you away. The text used is a poem by Friedrich Schiller, the Ode to joy.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Schiller’s text was chosen as the anthem of the European Commission in 1972, and has since then grown to be the anthem of the EU, along with Beethoven’s music.
The premiere was in 1824, in Vienna. Beethoven was conducting it himself – or so he thought. He was standing in front of the choir and the orchestra gesticulating wildly like a madman. By that time in his life he was completely deaf. Since the last performance he did as conductor was not a succes, it was decided that actually he was just there for the audience. The musicians would listen to the baton of another conductor, standing out of sight of Beethoven.
I say in front of choir and orchestra, because in Beethoven’s time it was customary to put the choir in front of the orchestra, just like the soloists still are. It was Wagner who changed that, when he conducted the symphony in 1864 in Dresden. Wagner liked the symphony so much, he used it for the inauguration of his new theatre in Bayreuth some ten years later.