Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (hear the last movement), also his last, was, and still is, a most remarkable piece. He had started sketching this work in 1815, but progress was slow because of a custody case over his nephew Karl, and by other musical works, particularly the Missa Solemnis Op.123 (Solemn Mass). Beethoven's health was also failing.

In 1822, the Philharmonic Society, London, offered him a £50 commission for the piece. He returned to the project in 1823, and progress was quick, with the mass finally out of the way. The symphony was completed in February 1824.

Beethoven had originally intended the work to be purely orchestral, but at some stage in the composition, he decided to use the choral finale that the work is famous for. Beethoven had considered setting Schiller's poem Ode to Joy to music as early as in 1793, and this was an excellent opportunity. No composer had ever used voices in a symphony before, but Beethoven wasn’t going to let that stop him.

Beethoven put the original Finale theme aside and replaced it with an improved version from his Choral Fantasia of 1808. The original theme was later repackaged in his A minor String Quartet Op.132 No.15.

The opening movement of the work is tragic, full of horror and hope, fear and optimism. The second is a galloping Scherzo, full of typical Beethoven energy. The third movement is slow, tender and wistful, and then comes the last.

A violent fanfare is followed by strings, with reminiscences of the first three movements. Then the new ‘joy’ theme comes along, powerful, elegant. At the very height, the fanfare returns, but the strings do not answer. Instead, it is followed by a human bass voice – “Oh friends, not these sounds!” – and in response, the entire chorus takes up the "joy" theme. The barnstorming finale saw the entire chorus, with four soloists to boot, singing the words from Schiller’s poem.

It’s easy to understand why Beethoven was inspired by the poem; the image of God within (“Brothers, above the canopy of stars, there must dwell a dear Father.”) is close to his own religious ideas.

But more than that, the poem is about human beings: “All men will be brothers.” Beethoven’s music shows that vividly. After an awe-inspiring climax at the words “And the cherub stands before God,” there is a moment's silence before the theme returns, in a cheeky, march-like version. The message: at this point popular music marches off the street and into the concert hall. “All men” really refers to all men, not just the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie.

The first performance was given on 7 May, 1824, at the Kärntnertor Theatre, Vienna. It was a strange premiere. The concert hall – with the notable exception of the imperial box – was packed. Beethoven (now totally deaf) was conducting, with a supplementary conductor for the choir. The audience was unusually attentive, and the performance was met with wild and rapturous applause between movements. At one point in the Scherzo, where the drums thunder a repeated figue, parts of the crown even broke into spontaneous applause.

By end of the piece, the cheering and clapping was thunderous, but Beethoven, standing facing the orchestra, was unaware until the contralto soloist, Caroline Unger, turned him round.

This ground-breaking work was to influence many composers to come, particularly Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, and especially Anton Bruckner, who was obsessed with it. Leonard Bernstein also re-arranged the piece in his Ode to Freedom version celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Audio CDs owe their playing time to this piece as well. When Sony came up with the first audio CDs, it arbitrarily selected the length of this work (a favorite in Japan) to be the approximate playing time for each disc. Even now, most audio CDs play for just slightly over an hour.

Listen to Beethoven’s celebration of the Brotherhood of Man, the last movement.

Recommended recording:
Beethoven - Symphony No. 9, Op.125: Sir Gerog Solti conducts the Chicago SO and SC in this 1995 recording of the Ninth. “One of the best available.”