“Ever since Beethoven’s iconic Ninth Symphony premiered May 7, 1824 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, it has remained arguably the most popular composition in the classical music canon,” writes conductor Marin Alsop on Saturday (12/7) at National Public Radio. The article accompanies an audio interview with Alsop that includes music clips. Beethoven was “proposing nothing less than a philosophy for humanity…. We inherently know and feel these aspirations when we hear Beethoven’s Ninth…. My teacher and mentor, Leonard Bernstein, conducted a version of Beethoven’s Ninth at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall where he changed Schiller’s word ‘freude’ (joy) to ‘freiheit’ (freedom) [which] inspired me to create a new project, ‘All Together: A Global Ode to Joy,’ marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020…. We’ll bring new texts to each location, plus added music…. In Baltimore, the new text has been created by rap artist, Wordsmith…. At Carnegie Hall, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Tracey K. Smith will do the honors. In Africa, the new text will be in Zulu…. Above all, Beethoven’s (and Schiller’s) themes of unity, tolerance, equality, love and joy … could not be more relevant today, when we see far too much disorder, misunderstanding and extremism.”
Posted December 10, 2019
Photo of conductor Marin Alsop by Grant Leighton. Inset photo: Ludwig van Beethoven
