LVSO

L. van Beethoven. Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

Kamilė Bonté, soprano

Gabrielė Kupšytė, mezzo-soprano

Karolis Kašiuba, tenor

Kostas Smoriginas, baritone

Kaunas State Choir (Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Robertas Šervenikas)

Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius

The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius, invites listeners to hear one of the most impressive works by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) – his final, Ninth, symphony. It is considered an important stylistic bridge, a transition between the Classical and Romantic periods in the history of Western music. In the Ninth Symphony, L. van Beethoven uses voices for the first time – four soloists and a choir sing the famous poem "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller in the final, fourth movement, which is why the symphony is also called the choral symphony.

L. van Beethoven worked diligently on every note of the symphony – his sketches reveal that the composer considered and rejected more than 200 different variations of the "Ode to Joy" theme. Upon finishing the work, L. van Beethoven offered the public a completely new approach to the symphony genre – it features four voices and a choir (until then, the symphony was considered an exclusively instrumental genre), an unusually large orchestra, and a duration of more than an hour, which did not meet the standards of the time.

The premiere of the Ninth Symphony in Vienna in 1824 was received with great enthusiasm. "The public greeted their hero with the greatest respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, magnificent work with bated breath, and burst into thunderous applause after each movement. At the end of the symphony, the audience greeted L. van Beethoven with standing ovations five times: they waved handkerchiefs, hats, and raised hands so that L. van Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations," wrote a critic for the "Theater-Zeitung" after the symphony's premiere.

Music experts recognize the symphony as L. van Beethoven's greatest work and one of the highest achievements in the history of Western music. It is also one of the most frequently performed symphonies in the world.