May 13, 2006 MUSIC REVIEW Ligeti puts Beethoven in perspective The Holocaust survivor's Requiem casts new light on the Ninth Symphony in a thrilling Los Angeles Philharmonic program. By Mark Swed, LA Times Staff Writer One of the most exalted versions of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony I know of is a film documenting a Berlin Philharmonic performance conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. But to hear the glorious Finale, with its lofty call to universal brotherhood, performed with spiritual fervor and then to watch the camera pan to an audience of intensely moved Nazi leaders is enough to generate a moral crisis in a listener.
I hear Stalin was a fan too, which sort of shows your point is valid for both better and worse ... another fact BTW is that Beethoven considered withdrawing the final choral movement and replacing it with a purely instrumental one. I don't know why exactly, but he and some others since, seem to feel uneasy about it (well, it does bang on a bit)
Space/Science » in reply to re: Lux Aeterna ART
true ..