Beethoven Premieres Ninth Symphony to Standing Ovation
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor premiered at the Karntnertortheater in Vienna on May 7, 1824, with the composer sitting on stage to help set the tempos because he was almost completely deaf. Michael Umlauf, the actual conductor, had told the musicians to ignore Beethoven. When the performance ended, Beethoven was still conducting, unaware the music had stopped. Contralto Caroline Unger took his arm and turned him to face the audience so he could see the thunderous applause he could not hear. The symphony's final movement, incorporating Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" as a choral piece, was revolutionary: no major symphony had used voices before. The European Union adopted the "Ode to Joy" melody as its anthem in 1985.
May 7, 1824
202 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Austria
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Vienna
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Ludwig van Beethoven
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Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
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Michael Umlauf
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deaf
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Ludwig van Beethoven
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Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
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Vienna
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Michael Umlauf
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Kärntnertortheater
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Henriette Sontag
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Caroline Unger
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Anton Haizinger
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Joseph Seipelt
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First French Empire
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Napoleon
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Pope Pius VII
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Papal States
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