Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1823 but was first performed in Vienna. It is divided into four movements which was common at the time, but Beethoven changed the order of the second (usually slow) and third (usually fast) movements. Perhaps he did that to lead up to the grand final movement more dramatically. He added vocal soloists and choral singers for the first time in a symphony and used a...