BEETHOVEN, Ludwig Van.

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Sinfonie mit Schluss-Chor über Schillers Ode: "An die Freude" First edition of the full orchestral score for the Ninth Symphony, first trade issue, published 28 August 1826, without the list of names found in prepublication copies for subscribers and without the metronome markings added to copies from December onwards.Beethoven's final complete symphony redefined the genre, breaking new ground by incorporating vocal soloists and a chorus in its final movement. It was a model for Berlioz, Bruckner, Mahler, Brahms, and Wagner.Beethoven composed it between spring 1823 and February 1824. Towards the end of the process, he decided to incorporate Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude" into the final movement - a poem that he had attempted to put into music since the early 1790s. The symphony premiered at the Theater am Kärntnertor Vienna on 7 May 1824, marking a triumphant public return for Beethoven, who had not appeared on stage in over a decade. At either the end of the scherzo or the symphony - accounts vary - Beethoven, then almost completely deaf and unaware of the audience's reaction, had to be gently turned around by the contralto Caroline Unger so he could see the enthusiastic applause. He died in March the following year.

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