Famous works · Classical / early Romantic
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, “Choral”, Op. 125
Completed 1824 · premiered 7 May 1824, Vienna
The first major symphony to use voices, setting Schiller's “Ode to Joy” as a hymn to human brotherhood.
The story behind it
Beethoven had wanted to set Schiller's poem since the 1790s. By the premiere he was completely deaf.
At the end of the performance a singer turned him around so he could see the audience applauding, which he could not hear.
The “Ode to Joy” melody is now the anthem of the European Union, and the manuscript is on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
What to listen for
- The finale's opening, where the orchestra quotes and rejects each earlier movement before the joy theme arrives.
- The baritone's first words: “O friends, not these sounds!”