Beethoven 9th Symphony - Wirksworth Festival

The final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824, Symphony No. 9 in D minor is regarded by many as his greatest work.

Remarkable in its day not only for its grandness of scale but especially for its final movement, which includes a full chorus and vocal soloists who sing a setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem “An die Freude” (“Ode to Joy”).The instantly recognisable music was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the European Union. Symphony No. 9 was ultimately more than three decades in the making. Schiller’s poem was published in 1785, with Beethoven making his first of multiple attempts to set it to music in the early 1790s. He revisited the poem in various possible settings determined to place it within a grand symphony he finally placed it with the 9th Symphony.