This live recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (The Choral Symphony), from the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, Germany, features Kurt Masur conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus with soloists Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger (Soprano), Doris Soffel (Mezzo), James Wagner (Tenor) and Gwynne Howell (Bass).
Written in 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was his last major work, and it is not only the final step in his symphonic development, but also a glorification that sums up all that went before. The fundamental ideas of his dramatic symphonies are united in the NINTH: the heroics of the Eroica, the fateful quality of the Fifth and the affirmation of the Seventh. For decades Beethoven had been toying with the idea of creating a setting for Schiller's Hymn Of Joy, and in the final movement of the Ninth he took the innovative step of introducing a chorus into a purely instrumental work, using the poem about spiritual joy to intensify his vision of perfection and eternal human bliss.
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