The first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the no longer existing Kärntnertortheater in Vienna is generally considered to be a milestone in the history of music. Researchers have been able to piece together quite a few details about the concert that was held on 7 May 1824 and have largely been able to reconstruct it; take, for example, the position of the choir in front of the orchestra, the precise instrumentation and arrangement of the orchestra or the musical score. What is remarkable is that research has focused primarily on the reception given to the first performance of Beethoven’s final symphony, although there were, in fact, three late works by Beethoven that were presented that evening. In addition to the Ninth Symphony, the audience was also treated to sections of the Missa solemnis and the overture to “The Consecration of the House”. To mark the 200th anniversary of the symphony, whose Ode to Joy is today the EU’s anthem, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, in collaboration with the University of Vienna and the Orchester Wiener Akademie and in cooperation with Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR, is for the first time recreating the concert. It promises to be a unique event offering remarkable new auditory experiences, perspectives and insights after listening to the Overture op. 124, the Missa solemnis op. 123 and the Ninth Symphony op. 125 in succession.

Visitors can thus expect two exceptional two-hour concerts in the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal. The reconstructed programmes share numerous characteristics in relation to aesthetics and content and suggest Beethoven wanted to use the ‘academy’ concerts to appeal to the idea of eternal peace. Exactly 200 years later, this appeal is more relevant than ever.