Beethoven 'Choral' Symphony

After a life marked by sorrow and suffering including the tragedy of going deaf, Beethoven arrived at the end of his symphonies with a work whose message is the triumph of joy. The first movement is craggy and heroic but also unsettled, ending ominously with a funeral march. For the second movement, a massive and complex scherzo, irresistible in its rhythmic drive, but with a trio like a little folksong whistled on a sunny day. That gives way to one of his most uncannily beautiful, time-stopping slow movements.

The finale is an epic variation movement introducing soloists and choir in a symphony for the first time, the variations on its legendary anthem-like theme ranging from a Turkish march to music exalted and transcendent, all of it proclaiming a simple but eternal message: our joy is founded on freedom, and the perfect society, here called Elysium, is something that gods and heroes cannot give us, but we must create for ourselves in friendship, brotherhood and love.