Celebratory concert 200 years of the Ninth Symphony in the Historic Town Hall Wuppertal on 7 May 2024

• The programme of the premiere on 7 May 1824 (unabridged version).
• WDR Rundfunkchor
• Orchester Wiener Akademie
• Martin Haselböck, director
• Chen Reiss, soprano
• Sara Fulgoni, alto
• Michael Schade, tenor
• Florian Boesch, bass

On the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, this key work in European music and intellectual history will be performed again for the first time in the instrumentation, line-up and programmatic constellation that Beethoven himself had specified. 

Researchers have been able to reconstruct many facts about this concert on 7 May 1824: For example, the positioning of the choir in front of the orchestra, the possible instrumentation or the musical text. It is noteworthy that the reception of the concert focuses mainly on the premiere of Beethoven's last symphony, although a total of three late works by Beethoven were performed that evening.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the symphony, whose Joy melody is now the anthem of the EU, the complete concert of the premiere will be reproduced for the first time. This promises to be a unique experience, as remarkable new listening perspectives and insights open up through the consecutively programmed works of the Overture op. 124, the Missa solemnis op. 123 and the Ninth Symphony op. 125. In the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, one of Europe's outstanding 19th century concert halls, an extraordinary concert can thus be experienced. Aesthetically and in terms of content, the reconstructed programme shows a variety of relationships and suggests that Beethoven wanted to appeal to the idea of Eternal Peace with the Academies. 200 years later, this appeal is more topical than ever.

Concept:  
Beethoven-Haus Bonn - Forschungsstelle Beethoven-Archiv and Institute for Musicology at the University of Vienna.

In collaboration with:  
WDR3, WDR Television, University of Vienna, Orchestra Wiener Akademie.

The concerts was recorded by WDR. 

Sponsored by: BKM, Sparkasse Wuppertal