»Freude, schöner Götterfunken«: With his famous Ninth Symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven created a musical monument that not only shaped the course of music history but whose famous finale also became the anthem of the European Union. Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which he founded in 1983 and has shaped ever since, in this overwhelming and deeply moving masterpiece. In the finale, the Pan-European Chorus and an outstanding quartet of soloists join the orchestra, including Swedish soprano Maria Bengtsson and bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann, one of the most distinguished German singers of his generation.
When Beethoven completed his Ninth Symphony, he expanded the boundaries of the genre. For the first time, he integrated a chorus into a symphony and, in the final movement, set Friedrich Schiller’s famous ode »An die Freude« (»Ode to Joy«). From the dramatic intensity of the opening movements, the music gradually gains ever greater radiance until, in the fourth and final movement, voices and orchestra unite in a powerful and timeless affirmation of humanity, hope and community.
PERFORMERS
Budapest Festival Orchestra orchestra
The Pan-European Chorus choir
Maria Bengtsson soprano
Olivia Vermeulen alto
Andrew Staples tenor
Hanno Müller-Brachmann bass
Iván Fischer conductor
PROGRAM
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
