Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is indeed one of the most significant music works in the Western-classical repertoire. Some critics even named it the greatest music piece that has ever been written. And there are definitely reasons why this could be a deserved title.
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| Beethoven conducting |
By the time the symphony was premiered in Vienna in 1824 Ludwig Beethoven was almost deaf. However, he was almost ‘directing’ the piece himself, notching the time and actively gesticulating to musicians, rising and shrinking as long as the music sounded according to his calculations. The orchestra, though, was told to mildly ignore the great composer because of his deafness. They say that the Symphony was badly rehearsed (only two dress rehearsals before premiere), but it didn’t bother it to be received with grand applause. After the orchestra ceased playing and calmed down at the last sound, Beethoven was a bit off the track and kept conducting. They say that one of the singers (contralto) came up to him and turn the master face to the audience – so that he could SEE the ovations if not hear them.
This was a choral symphony (Beethoven’s first one of this kind) and the choral part of it deserves special attention. “Ode to Joy” is one of the most played things up to now. The lyrics was taken from Schiller’s poem and revised, reworked and redone many times by composer before it reached the present form. Interesting but like many later-to-become-masterpieces works are initially underestimated by their authors. Schiller, too, thought that his poem was a complete failure. But it wasn’t. And Beethoven’s usage of it in his Symphony 9 engraved the greatness of for another few centuries minimum.
