“Beethoven’s Ninth reminds us that all the crises of the year just ended and those that still lie ahead can have a positive outcome.”
The Ninth plays a key role in Stanley Kubrick’s cult film A Clockwork Orange, and every first Sunday in December, 10,000 people in Japan sing it as a secret anthem: Few works have characterised music history as much as Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 in D minor. One of the world’s most popular classical compositions, it has been covered and sampled many times. It is the last completed symphony of the German composer who led the First Viennese School to its zenith. Premiered in Vienna on 7 May 1824, its fame is not least attributable to the fact that Beethoven chose Friedrich Schiller’s poem “An die Freude” as its text. In fact, the European Community declared the main theme of the last movement, “Freude schöner Götterfunken”, as the official European anthem in 1985.
“When I open the score of a Beethoven symphony, it always feels like I’m standing at the foot of a huge mountain. I know that it will be incredibly demanding and exhausting, but it is also hard to beat in terms of beauty and emotion.”
But above all, it has always proclaimed the message of joy and global friendship among people. The ode works like good pop music. Perhaps this is the reason that the Ninth was used in the 19th and 20th centuries as the festive music par excellence: It was played by totalitarian rulers on their birthdays and, after the Second World War, was used as the Olympic anthem for the teams from divided Germany competing together. The day after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Ode to Joy was rewritten to a political end when protesters at the Brandenburg Gate sang “Friede” (peace) instead of “Freude” (joy). The Munich Symphony Orchestra performed the work at the Isarphilharmonie around the turn of the year under the baton of Joseph Bastian (28 December 2024 and 1 January 2025).
“What I really love about the piano concertos is that they work so wonderfully together. They tell a story: Beethoven’s journey, the way in which he changed and developed his style.”
Though different in style, Beethoven’s piano concertos are no less famous. “The way Beethoven treats the harmonies in his first two concertos shows how much he is still attached to the spirit of the time, even if it is unmistakably Beethoven,” says Jan Lisiecki about the piano concertos. “The way he uses the woodwinds is also reminiscent of Mozart. The themes are often characterised by a certain elegance, and a number of processes take place in an emphatically intimate chamber music style.” The exceptional Canadian pianist performed all five compositions on three consecutive evenings (7, 8 and 9 January). Lisiecki, who has been regarded as a child prodigy since his concert debut as a nine-year-old, performed with and conducted the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Jan Lisiecki at the Isarphilharmonie
Text: Anna Steinbauer
