Rainbow Beethoven
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 it's 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.
