Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, is one of the most influential compositions in the history of music.
Its word-driven final movement is a declaration in favor of universal brotherhood, which explains why the Ninth has often been used to solemnize an important event such as the opening of the United Nations and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Music historian Harvey Sachs looks at the world in 1824, when the Ninth premiered. Europe was dealing with repressive regimes and ultraconservative nationalism in the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Other artists also expressed outrage and discontent, including Byron, Pushkin, Delacroix, Stendhal, and Heine.
Still, the Ninth’s premiere was the most significant artistic event of 1824. It went on to become a touchstone for the century’s new generations of creative artists.
Sachs, a 2010-11 Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is author or co-author of eight books and teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His newest book, The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 (Random House), is available for signing after the program.
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