New Year’s Eve Concert

Ludwig van Beethoven was a musical revolutionary, the pioneer of the Romantic era – and he was a visionary who once said: »Freedom itself, to move forward, is the purpose in the world of art, as in all of creation.« His symphonic ascent to the top culminated in a composition that boldly transcended boundaries and has moved humanity ever since its premiere in 1824. Here, Beethoven poured humanitarian ideas into a work that had never before existed in this form. The orchestral flow builds magnificently towards the finale, in which vocal parts appear: the baritone admonishes with the weighty words »O friends, not these sounds!« and then the musical realisation of Schiller’s »Ode To Joy« unfolds with urgency. A masterpiece by an artist who was completely tone deaf when it was composed. The biographer Romain Rolland describes a scene from exactly that time, when Beethoven was fine-tuning his pieces at the piano without hearing the sounds: »Full of emotions, one could follow the inner commotion that was revealed by his face and his frantically working, contorted fingers.« The composer was a fighter – not only in terms of his personal fate, but also for equality and liberty. This is particularly apparent in his last symphony, of which an early critic remarked that its emotional power »sweeps the listeners from one feeling to another as if in a storm«. As we bring the year to a close, we are already turning our attention to the upcoming Beethoven anniversary – for in 2027, our audience can look forward to an even greater number of moving moments with Beethoven’s music.