Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
"Beethoven" by Joseph Karl Stieler - Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with its setting of Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy," is a natural choice for solemn occasions. This may be why it was selected for the festive reopening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, after World War II. Last week the first two movements of the 1951 performance, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler, were heard. This week on Classics of the Phonograph, Saturday at 11 am on WILL-FM, you will hear the last two movements and the famous choral finale from that historic recording.