Beethoven’s Ninth – 200! Euroradio live broadcast from the historic town hall of Wuppertal in Germany / LR3 / / Latvijas Radio

This evening promises to be very special not only on the “Klasikas” airwaves in Latvia, but also throughout Europe, because at 20:00 together with several other Euroradio members we will connect to the historic town hall of Wuppertal, from where in honor of the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which is just around the corner today, we will broadcast the so-called reconstruction of this concert, that is, the same concert program played on historical instruments as it was played on May 7, 1824.

And at that time it was not the case that the only attention was directed to the Ninth Symphony! This was not enough for Beethoven, he decided that the more than an hour long symphony would be played in the second part of the concert, and in the first part two of his other late compositions: the theater overture “Consecration of the House” and Mass Solemnis or Solemn mass. However, it was a utopia on Beethoven’s part – to prepare the entire program in two orchestra rehearsals, and the concertmaster of the orchestra at the time understood this already after the first rehearsal…

Six copyists wrote the voices for the choir and the orchestra day and night, and all this – knowing Beethoven’s barely legible handwriting – was a very thankless task.

One singer called Beethoven a “tyrant of the voice”, the tenor and bass refused to play solo parts during the rehearsal, and replacements had to be found for them in a very short time. In the middle of all this, there was Beethoven himself, who was still angry about the ticket prices, which, in his opinion, were too low.

We will tell you about other interesting details of the premiere, which are also taken into account in this concert, for example – the choir that stands not behind the orchestra, but in front of it – when the live broadcast comes closer, but those who will perform tonight will be the orchestra “Viennese Academy” and the West Asian The Radio Orchestra in Cologne, under the direction of conductor Martin Hazelbeck, will hear Chena Reis, Sara Fulgoni, Michaela Sädzi and Florian Bosch in the soloist quartet tonight.

In between – an interview with Zani Prädel, who will report on exhibitions, scientific conferences and other interesting events taking place in Germany in honor of the ninth anniversary of the premiere.

Estonia, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Spain and even Canada will hear this Euroradio live broadcast at the same time as Latvia! On the other hand, 11 other countries will broadcast the concert with a time delay.