Beethoven’s Ninth – A Symphony for the World

The Ninth is perhaps the most performed and most dazzling symphony of all time. A masterpiece of incredible beauty. What is its secret?

The Ninth is perhaps the most performed and most dazzling symphony of all time. A greatest hit of classical music, a state-underpinning European anthem, a fetishising of Occidental metaphysics. Or simply a masterpiece of incredible beauty. To this day, it touches people all over the world. What is its secret? The film follows the traces of the Ninth across four continents.

It finds people whose lives are closely intertwined with Beethoven’s symphony and offers viewers profound insights into a music in which Beethoven opened the door to a utopia for all of humankind. Still today, this extravagant work transports audiences into a state of rapture.

This is how a tortured soul, a notoriously alcohol-dependent, scowling, money-grabbing and socially intolerable individual, composes his philosophical-musical manifesto on overcoming isolation. Here, Beethoven gives the fullest expression to feelings of interconnection, joy and release from the chains of fear, compulsion and demagogy.

Original title Beethoven’s Ninth – A Symphony for the World
Genre Documentary
Recording location 8 countries on 4 continents
Duration 52 mins
Production Company sounding images, ZDF/arte, Deutsche Welle
Director Christian Berger
Soloist Teodor Currentzis, Tan Dun, Paul Whittaker, Yutaka Sado, Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste of Kinshasa and many more