Silvesterkonzert

Ludwig van Beethoven was a musical revolutionary, a pioneer of Romanticism – and a visionary who once said: "In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, only freedom and the pursuit of it are purpose." His symphonic masterpiece culminated in a composition that boldly broke boundaries and has moved audiences since its premiere in 1824. He poured humanistic ideas into a work that had never existed before. The orchestral flow builds to a powerful finale, in which voices appear: The baritone intones a profound "O friends, not these sounds!" and then the musical realization of Schiller's Ode "An die Freude" unfolds powerfully. This is a masterpiece by an artist who was completely deaf during its creation. The biographer Romain Rolland describes a scene from that time, when Beethoven was working on his pieces at the piano, without hearing the sounds: "One could observe the emotional movements in this playing, which were reflected in his face and his intensely working, bent fingers." The composer was a fighter – not only in his personal life, but also for freedom and equality. This is particularly evident in his final symphony, which a critic described as "transporting listeners from one feeling to another, like a storm." To mark the end of the year, we are already focusing on the upcoming Beethoven anniversary – because our audience can look forward to even more moving moments with his works in 2027.