Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (2003)

Interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, "Choral," range from the heavily Romantic to the spryly Classical, and this uncomfortable duality stems from the work's position on the fault line between those two musical eras. On the one hand, the dominance of German conductors, which lasted well into the 20th century, produced a late Romantic school of thought that favored a profoundly reverent treatment of the work, supported by the quasi-religious expressions in Johann Friedrich von Schiller's An die ... Read More

Interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, "Choral," range from the heavily Romantic to the spryly Classical, and this uncomfortable duality stems from the work's position on the fault line between those two musical eras. On the one hand, the dominance of German conductors, which lasted well into the 20th century, produced a late Romantic school of thought that favored a profoundly reverent treatment of the work, supported by the quasi-religious expressions in Johann Friedrich von Schiller's An die Freude, which is the text of the ecstatic Finale. On the other, the rise of historically informed practice in the later decades of the 20th century tended to de-emphasize the Romantic mysticism of Schiller's poem and the same impulse in Beethoven's music, stripped away accretions of accepted practice and dogma, and played up the Classicism that still underlies the first three movements (however beyond Classical the Ode to Joy is, by any standard). As a result, modern performances... Read Less