The premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on May 7, 1824 was a great success. The performance was "repeatedly interrupted by the audience's enthusiastic cheers," one critic wrote after the concert in Vienna, at which the deaf composer was present.
At the time the audience couldn't have known that they were listening to what would ultimately become the Anthem of Europe. Centuries later this piece of music with a turbulent political history is regarded as a masterpiece of Western classical music.
Ahead of his time
Alongside the enthusiasm for the first symphony in music history to feature a choir, some critics questioned whether the last movement of the symphony, set to Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy", was a little too unconventional.
"Beethoven was seen as an avant-gardist," conducter Martin Haselböck tells dpa. "It was hyper modern," he says about the work of the composer, who was born in 1770 in Bonn and died in his adopted home of Vienna in 1827.
Haselböck and his Wiener Akademie orchestra are known for playing classical music on historical instruments at original venues. But the theatre where the ninth was first performed no longer exists. Haselböck and his ensemble will therefore perform the piece on its 200th anniversary on May 7 and 8 at the Historische Stadthalle in the city of Wuppertal.
The idea of understanding between nations and European unity, which we nowadays associate with the symphony, has formed the concept of a TV programme, broadcast on European public service channel Arte.
On May 7, the four movements of the symphony will be interpreted by four different ensembles: the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
A 'drinking song'
For his ninth symphony, Beethoven drew on a poem that was very well-known at the time and had been previously set to music by others. Schiller wrote "Ode to Joy" in 1785, a few years before the French Revolution. The original text, which begins in German with "Joy, thou shining spark of God," reads "Beggars become princes' brothers."
The song was a hit even before Beethoven adopted it, explains Beethoven researcher Beate Kraus. The revolutionary nature of the lyrics was not the only reason for this, she tells dpa. A hymn to joy and friendship, it was popular with students. "It was a drinking song," says Kraus.
Under the title "Ode to Joy" Schiller's verses became the core of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Since its premiere, the cult of genius surrounding Beethoven and the complexity of the symphony have have given it a wide-ranging legacy and influence. "Anyone can project what they want onto the symphony," the researcher says.
Hitler's birthday music and an East-West German anthem
Beethoven's music was instrumentalized during the Nazi era, and the Ninth Symphony was even performed for Hitler's birthday. In communist East Germany, the composer's work was interpreted as music of peace and friendship between nations. "Only in peace can can we cultivate our national heritage" read a poster for a 1952 performance of the ninth symphony.
The "Ode to Joy" accompanied German division and reunification. In the 1950s and 60s it served as the anthem for the United Team of Germany at the Olympic Games. After the fall of the wall, star conductor Leonard Bernstein performed the symphony with the rewritten text "Freedom, beautiful spark of divinity" in East and West Berlin in December 1989.
The majority of Beethoven's handwritten scores for the Ninth Symphony are kept in the Berlin State Library. Different storage locations during World War II resulted in the texts being split up during the division of Germany. It was only after reunification that Beethoven's music was brought back together.
Controversial or a source of political energy?
At the beginning of the 1970s, Austrian conductor Herbert Karajan broke down the complex fourth movement with its dissonances, dramatic turns and interwoven vocals into an anthem for the Council of Europe that was suitable for the masses.
It later became the anthem of the European Union. As a result, Beethoven's masterpiece has become disliked in certain political circles.
For example, MEP's from the UK's Brexit Party turned their backs while the EU anthem was being played in the European Parliament. At the end of April, some members of the right-wing and EU-critical Identity and Democracy political group remained seated when the EU anthem was played to commemorate EU enlargement.
But it's also possible to simply enjoy Beethoven's masterpiece without any of the politics.
In Japan, performances of the Ninth Symphony with amateur choirs are a New Year's tradition. The largest of these concerts takes place in Osaka with a total of 10,000 singers, conducted by Yutaka Sado.
Sado, who is also chief conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Austria, said that participants include cancer patients or people who are caring for relatives and want to draw strength from music.
Beethoven's music demonstrates that joy is not so easy to come by, Sado says. "We have to embrace each other in order to achieve that joy."
