Thomas Zehetmair – Götterfunken: Beethoven 9

Performers

ThomasZehetmair. Conductor
Alma RuoqiSun. Soprano
Marie HenrietteReinhold. Alto
WernerGüra. Tenor
MatthiasLika. Bass
figure humaine chamber choir
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Program

Ludwig vanBeethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

“Then Caroline Unger had the brilliant idea of turning the maestro (…) around and drawing his attention to the cheers of the audience, who were waving their hats and handkerchiefs.”

About Beethoven at the Vienna premiere in 1824

Did Beethoven—deaf and isolated—actually get turned toward the audience by the young soprano at the end of the Ninth so that he could at least see the jubilation that made the Kärtnertortheater tremble? Perhaps it’s more of a legend. But this key scene captures well the overwhelming power of the symphony from the first note to the last—the “Beethoven myth.” Beethoven’s Ninth, with Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” that faith in humanity cast in sound, becomes a myth in its own right, because the idea and the music together express something even greater, because the almighty composer spans the arc from chaos to the sublime, and because the universal message is understood immediately and everywhere in the world. Principal Conductor Thomas Zehetmair and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra will open the 2026/27 season with this pinnacle of classical music as part of the “Beethoven Project”—the performance and recording of all his symphonies. Joining them are world-class soloists and the chamber choir figure humaine, who will bring the joy—the “beautiful spark of the gods”—to life through their singing in the Beethoven Hall of the Liederhalle.

Special thanks go to the Wolfgang Carl Friedrich Grosse & Renate Elly Wald Foundation, which generously and exclusively supports “The Beethoven Project.”