Ode to Joy - Ludwig van Beethoven.

The video was originally Published on May 31, 2012

Over the many decades since the birth of Ludwig Van Beethoven there have been scores of orchestral performances of his music, arguably one of the greatest composers to have lived, and many of the performances of his magnificent works were conducted by leading international conductors, mostly performed in theatres and concert halls around the world,  but on the  130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell, the Spanish Bank wanted to pay homage to their City by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell).

So they did something rather rare and special,  arranging as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs,  a performance of Beethoven’s internationally renowned music, “Ode To Joy,” to a very surprised and fascinated audience near the bank as you will see on the video.

Beethoven was born at Bonn in Germany in 1770, the son of one of the court musicians there. His grand father was a native of Maliens who had setted in Bonn decades earlier and the memory of Beethoven’s origins is preserved in his use of the Dutch  “Van” rather than the German Von.

He was introduced to music by his father a not particularly good musician or father, and Beethoven had to often to take over the family responsibilities  after his father lost his job. He had  a few teachers but the young musician began making real progress when the was taught by teachers of the standard and stature of Salieri, Haydn, then with Albrechtsberger, when he was in Vienna.

He progressed rapidly from then on, making his name as a concert pianist among the fashionable salon society of Austria’s Capital making the acquaintance of nobility.  Beethoven appears to have been the first composer to attempt to live exclusively as a freelance from the beginning of his career.

Beethoven wrote masterpieces in all the main musical genres during that time that have influenced musicians and audiences ever since.  The Ode to Joy had been on his mind since the age of twenty two, after he had dreamed of setting to music Schiller’s ode to Joy, he finally realised his project  in 1823 in the powerful ninth symphony.

Enjoy this beautiful video and the wonderful music of Ludwig van Beethoven.