7 May—Exactly 200 years ago today, in Vienna, profoundly deaf Ludwig von Beethoven semi-conducted the premiere of his Ninth Symphony in D minor, Opus 125, which he had started serious work on two years earlier, five years after being commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London. You can read about the performance in 17 December 2022’s Musik über Alles.

The Ninth is known as the Choral Symphony because the last (fourth) movement features four vocal soloists and a chorus belting out Friedrich Schiller’s Ode an die Freude, known in English as Ode to Joy—with some additions by Beethoven, of course.

The last movement is the one that’s most performed and abused. The 17 December 2022 disquisition includes a brilliant piano reduction of it by Franz Liszt and a non-abusive performance by massed ukuleles.

Among the many abusers on YouTube are a dozen or so great highland solo and ensemble bagpipers. On the other hand, the Dundee-based MacKenzie Caledonian Pipe Band does a decent job. This outdoor performance was recorded in Hückelhoven, Germany: