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Verdiana!
Pucciniana!
Tenorissimo!
OperaResource
1998-2001
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BEETHOVEN'S NINTH SYMPHONY
Friedrich von Schiller's Ode to Joy in Beethoven's setting for
four soloists, chorus
and orchestra has taken on a special meaning as a fanfare for
peace, tolerance and
liberty all over the world.
Beethoven's drafts for his opus 125 - the last in the cycle of
symphonies - date back
to the year 1815 or 1816. For decades he had been wanting to
set Schiller's hymn to
music, but it was only after the first three movements of the
9th Symphony were
almost completed that he decided to compose a choral finale
for the last movement
based on parts of the poem.
In the conventions of the 1820s it was nothing less than
revolutionary to end a
symphony in this manner - and at just over an hour the work
was also unusually
long. At its first performance, in Vienna on May 7, 1824, the
audience was typically
enthusiastic, while the critics, as so often before, found the
composer's unique
ideas too novel and daring.
Beethoven himself could not hear the clamour and the shouts of
'Bravo', as he was
completely deaf by this time.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund.
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