Imagine a deaf man composing this masterpiece without even a piano to play the notes on! Beethoven composed it all in his head! Truly he was the greatest musical genius of all time.
Maestro Leonard Bernstein was terminally ill at the time of this concert devoted to the reunification of Germany. He was diagnosed with mesothielioma and had less then a year to live. The orchestra was made up of musicians from the United States, England, the Soviet Union, and France, and many had never played together. The symphony chosen for this event was Beethoven's Ninth; a particularly difficult piece which included vocal soloists and a full chorale. Bernstein conducted the the concert brilliantly. A very moving presentation, and quite challenging given the state of his health. He was one of the finest musical directors to ever hold a baton, and a well known humanitarian. Bravo Maestro.
And yet, this is, most likely, one of the best renditions of the 9th Symphony ever.. imho. I keep listening to it since I was a kid, and it still moves me -- to tears -- every time.
It can be said that he was America's teacher in its relationship to music, especially classical music. His educational concerts with the New York Philharmonic remain unforgettable...
Terminally ill, yet a fitting way to go out at a mountain peak summit, a pinnacle for him. No doubt he is conducting an even higher, heavenly version above. Just imagine the heavenly host all singing this with Bernstein conducting!
It was a full tribute to Beethoven then. Wasn't he almost completely deaf when he conducted this for the first time? Edit: I didn't realize he was there just for show. Someone else conducted it for him (Beethoven that is, not Bernstein).
Declare it a "World Heritage Video" OR have "The United Nations" adopt a sternly-written Joint Resolution demanding its ongoing, worldwide distribution, in every conceivable format that's existed from 1900-onward. Or, ya know, I'll see ya back here again real soon! ;)
What a historic concert it was. And how appropriate that the Maestro, Leonard Bernstein, was the conductor. No doubt he, beginning his journey on to the next life , a more heavenly existence , was conducting with inspiration from the heavenly hosts. You can see it in his expression. It gives me chills. My husband and I are from Vienna and were blessed to attend this concert, commemorating what might possibly be one of the most significant events of our lifetimes. Growing up in Vienna in the 1970s and studying music at Universität Wien during the 80s, we remember very well when Germany was still divided. It was such a deeply emotional event to us when the Berlin Wall came down. It seemed like humanity had finally gotten it right. We’re still praying that we do one day. We miss you, Maestro. A light was lost to this world when you left. 🙏🙏🙏✌🏼With love from Austria. 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹🌺🥂🌹🎼🎵🎶❤
It was Christmas Eve! I came home and this was live on PBS, it just started! I was about 14. I watched the entire thing, mesmerized and in awe of how wonderful it was. I did not know I was watching history. Now I watch this almost every month!!! please don't take this down!!! It is perfect!!!
@@Lepidopray And when you do find it, you are up 1 hour, 33 minutes and 51 seconds later -- no matter HOW early you need to wake up the current/next day!
Oh my gosh, I didn't realize that Leonard Bernstein died within a year after this concert! What a fitting tribute to one of the greatest conductors, one of the greatest composers, and one of the greatest events, of all time! I don't think that anyone born after, say, 1983, can truly appreciate how remarkable this concert was! Watching this after seeing the collapse of he Berlin Wall was just INCREDIBLE!!!
I'm nearing fully a half-century in age, but as a childlike young example of a young man, I wept openly as this was shown *in the USA on public broadcasting, for all* and I'm neither of German ancestry, nor had even visited Europe AT ALL, at that juncture... But I knew I had to see what of the biggest historical event in my life, then...my SOUL ERUPTED. See? I've no musical training, play no instrument, and John Williams was the only "symphonic-type" I'd deign listen to, but growing up with the scar & tension of The Wall, a forcefully-divided Europe, and the looming Nuclear Annihilation that the "Cold War" of the USA & CCCP, with all of life in the balance & and no hands upon the tillers, so to speak, that this was my second to revel! (Somehow knowing, even in my teenaged heart, that History was to fill the void it abhors with new, different horrors...in former Yugoslav Republics, African starvation & murders, Tiananmen Square, Arab-Israeli wars, Kuwaiti invasion, etc, etc, etc) Regardless of all of that, my body, sans gracefulness & rhythm, and paired with eyes blinded by big drops drenching my dimply, grinning face, DANCED, SANG, and HOPED, connected, pre-internet or mobile phones, just how soundly so many MILLIONS of us around the world, though understandably taught to be wary, would rest just a hint more deeply tonight, moving into the future. I may have been wrong. (Strike that: I was wrong in thinking that wrongs were beaten like a video game boss, then you level-up, never to face those challenges again, once you've bested them.) I didn't understand the cyclical nature of Geopolitics, being years from Uni & Adulthood at the time, without the knowledge to read, play, or appreciate Fine Art in any meaningful way... BUT IT WAS THE MOST UPLIFTING TIME OF MY LIFE, to that point. This performance signified Unity & Healing, but it brought me HOPE. Not much, admittedly, though enough for rapturous emotion on my part. But it was HOPE. And it was, for too brief of a window, the FIRST, REAL lesson that the young can believe that Impossible things are often only impossible because no one else tried to fix it, or quit too soon. I'm older now, and by about 70% or so . The Earth has never stopped being a perilous place, just with new faces, and with the next trigger fingers over same old RED BUTTONS. I realize the "goal" is an eternal "process" to be solved, then re-solved, perpetually. Regardless, I shall weep when the swell of youthful exuberance fights its way out of my deepest recesses. I shall never cease to weep in JOY, lest I forget that tears have other purposes, like in 1989. (Frankly, paired to my inability NOT to weep every time that I even hear a snippet, even in public! If ever I don't, or quit, I suppose that I'll have truly died inside. This 50-yr-old Me would NEVER have written so much, especially about music, on YT, ever... but the nearly-adult Version of myself, 33 years ago, decided He had something that He felt He should share. I couldn't deny my "inner-adolescent-self" his "twice-a-decade indulgence" by posting like I forgot 33 years ago, couldn't spell "cynicism" and then, blessedly, END THIS DIATRIBE. P.S. -- Then we're going to move, sing, and let emotions & tears have their way! Many days, this kept me got me through dark days, and I was able to have many, more days afterward, due to the 9th Symphony. "An Ode to Joy" I am grateful & humbled by it.
I unfortunately missed a lot of this. I was in my second year of college. I knew about the fall of the Berlin Wall on the news, but I had trouble grasping its significance, until the fall of the Soviet Union, two years later. Up to that point, the most significant event around the Wall that I'd heard was Reagan speaking at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" At the time there were those in the U.S. who thought this was sacrilege. It upset the applecart in what we saw as U.S.-Soviet relations. It deserved to be upset! I didn't pay much attention to the days' events around the reunification of Berlin. I think I completely missed this concert. I learned of it later, and really came to treasure it. I have since listened to retrospectives talking in detail about what led to reunification. BTW, something I didn't know until just a few years ago was that Berlin was in fact 90 miles *inside* East Germany! I'd always had this idea in my head that East and West Germany were split through Berlin, as if the border of the two countries ran through the city. In fact, the Wall wasn't to keep people in East Berlin (and East Germany), but to keep people *out* of West Berlin! It was a wall that the Soviets built all around West Berlin, as if to quarantine it, because people had been escaping East Germany, and gaining asylum through West Berlin. Once I learned this, I was amazed, because obviously the Western Allies controlled this small, little piece of East Germany, deep inside enemy territory, as it were, but how?? The only thing I could conclude was that it was an uneasy peace, with the Allies having a credible threat of force if the Soviets ever decided to take it, and do away with the concession.
J Barton, one tiny correction: your writing is anything but a "diatribe". It is an inspirational personal ode to life and hope, and I thank you for sharing your growth and loving appreciation for one of the finest pieces ever written.
amazing. I'm reading this while in Russia. I am 26 years old. I’m about the same as you were in 1989 and I experience exactly the same feelings! thank you, thank you for sharing your thoughts, I understand that now I’m definitely not alone!
@@Hercules674 Composed some important strings quartets after the 9th Symphony, including the Grosse Fugue, a very relevant composition. It was a farewell to symphonic compositions, not to all kind compositions. By the way, the Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was composed more or less in the time of the 9th.
How this was pulled off pre internet is amazing to me. The phone calls, logistics, rehearsal time needed, and getting players from different countries all to work together in a tight time frame must have been a nightmare. Well done for all those involved
A logistical nightmare and perhaps a musical and sociopolitical joy? As a person who grew up behind the wall, the Freiheit! Still rings true so many years later. Dankeschön to all involved!!
@@heidiclaireI grew up on the other side of the Wall, wanting nothing more than my German brothers and sisters to taste the freedom that I had. Grüße aus Niedersachsen ❤️
People back then were just used to getting things done in short order without offering up excuses...they didn't call those who served in World War II the greatest generation for nothing
It is not a matter of rushing or not, but rather if a natural singer is being emulated. People create myths out of incomplete information and expectations. Slower takes feel more sophisticated while faster playing is more more passionate. The first movement is is just in the okay range on the slow end but many climaxes are buzzkills because the tempo taken is slower.
I've been listening to this recording repeatedly in the last few days, since the invasion of Ukraine. It reminds me of the unifying nature of music, and that humanity is bound together inspite of all our differences, even in the darkest times.
@@jakobetheanimevtuber4102 i always try to see the beauty in life. The wonders of life are just amazing. I want to embrace the world every day. But sometimes you just need reassurance. That's what this recording does for me. Peace.
@@AlanCanon2222 It’s not my intention to attack you or something like that. But „Menschen“ means Humans not Men. So Womenschen makes no Sense. It’s already gender neutral.😉
3:55 - First movement 22:54 - Second movement 36:40 - Third movement 57:15 - Fourth movement: • 1:05:57 - Beginning of the Ode to Freedom • 1:13:23 - " Freiheit Schöner Götterfunken " 1:25:50 - Applause and credits.
We need to tell our children that, yes we all will die, yes Earth would die in billions of years, yes there could be no God, but THIS, this music, this joy, is eternal and divine and worth living for.
In the early 70's I attended a performance of Beethoven's 9th at Symphony Hall in Boston. The scheduled conductor, William Steinberg, was ill and replaced at the last minute by Leonard Bernstein. What a special day that was!
@@storealope None other than the late and GREAT Leonard Bernstein!!! So very sad that the world lost him less than a year after this incredible concert!!
In 1989 I (a physics major) was in the University of Louisville symphony. I had two friends from the orchestra from Berlin and Bavaria, who I knew longed to be in Germany for unification, but couldn't be, so I went to the hardware store and bought them two small sledgehammers in commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Few who weren't alive at the time may appreciate what a momentous historical event it was. The exultation of "die Welt", as they say, was "up to Eleven". Decades of human suffering ended that day. I've never played the Ninth (I'm a double bass player) but I have played the Sixth and Seventh: the Seventh in concert, and the Sixth in a one-time-only run through, unrehearsed, with the U of L orchestra, at my own request. I was destined to be a scientist but I am still a musician, although not a very good one.
I grew up on Leonard Bernstein's Youth Concerts on TV, which served as my introduction to classical music. I remember watching this live in 1989 with my wife...it is as spectacular a performance now as it seemed then. Danke, Maestro; Mögen Sie immer als Segen in Erinnerung bleiben, solange die Musik lebt.
It is a pleasure to hear that they sing "Freiheit" as Schiller originally intended, instead of "Freude" as he was finally compelled to write. Liberty... a word that authorities of all times and countries do not particularly relish.
Great memory! Our daughter was born 8 or 9 days before the wall came down, in Hannover. I recall a lot of people were downtown eating ice cream. They came from Berlin to experience the west. Recall watching this performance on Christmas 1989. A very noble performance. A friend offered us tickets. Wish we had gone.
How a miserably-ill, skint, deaf, afflicted by dropsy and almost-forgotten musician could create this brilliance is surely a testament to Divine inspiration. The quartet writing alone is unbelievable! Thank You Ludwig.
The greatest performance of the most magnificent music and singing in the musical world I’ve ever never experienced . How I wish I were at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin then to listen to such touching music and singing created by a musician worth the world’s utmost respect and remembrance.
He wasn't almost forgotten - in fact, he thought this himself, so you're not completely wrong. But just as he was going to move the premier of this work to Berlin, he was petitioned by his fans and friends to keep it in Vienna. But that still doesn't take away from the other difficulties he was facing at all.
I always enjoyed Bernstein’s conducting. I can see the expressions on his face, he savers it, and at the end, he closes his eyes, and remarks on what he has accomplished. With a smile, and a bow, he starts. He expresses what should be expressed. The beauty, the accidentals, the accents, and the scenery. Remember, Beethoven wrote is mostly minor keys, and that expresses beauty, passion. People see sadness in that key, and describe it as sad, but most people don’t know that it can be described as Joyful. Take Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It sounds and expresses, beautiful birds, a scene in an act. Take Every Lullaby from every movie, describes a scene, talking about sleep. This is a masterpiece and Bernstein did MORE than excellent to express this piece and conduct it.
In my opinion this is the best version of the symphony. It is one of few good things that youtube did when it recommended it to me. At the end of the fourth movement you just wanna sing with them and wake up the neighbourhood in midnight
hard to imagine a human could compose such heavenly music. may beethoven and bernstein both rest in peace. such a pleasure to listen to this. thank you for this video
You know what I'd do if anyone were to ask me "what makes life worth living?" I'd play them the part from 55:27-55:55... that segment makes life worth living for me. Unfiltered sublime beauty. Beethoven may have had an incredibly challenging life, but wow did it lead him to this symphony, a beautiful gift for humanity. 🙌🎶
This symphony shows what humans are capable of. If I can write a piece of music that does for someone what this piece of music does for me, I will have done something good in this world.
It was/is one of the most amazing moments in the history of music; 3 geniuses in the same piece, Bernstein, Beethoven, and Schiller! Bravo! Bravissimo!
I know that a symphony is comprised of notes and rests and multiple instruments all playing their part; and sometimes that's what the audience hears. But to me, here, Bernstein is conducting - sans score, I might add - pure emotion. It's on his face and in his body and somehow flowing from the orchestra as well. This is magic.
Bernstein knew how important this concert was and how many people worldwide were watching it (although I was surprised to note that the concert didn’t play on either French or Soviet TV, perhaps it was broadcast on radio). By the fourth movement, his grin clearly showed that this strange amalgam of musicians from both East and West Germany, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and the United States nailed it. He knew how ill he was and that this would be part of his legacy - in a sense signaling the final end of the War.
This is certainly one of the greatest, if not.THE GREATEST aristic achievements of all time. I have instructed mu family to play the 3rd movement to revive me from a coma. Brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear the beautiful sound of hope that arises from the dueling adagios. MAGNIFICIENT!
Dank Leonard Bersten eröffnet sich der Sinne dieser Symphony " Ode an die Freude" . Bernstein war einer vom größten Musiker des 20 Jahrhunderts. Diese Aufnahme ist besten Beweis dafür.
I remember during a lull in our Christmas Day celebration in '89, I turned on the TV , flipped a couple of channels and landed on this live broadcast at the start. I was amazed by the gravity of the moment and the beauty of the music and remained glued to it for the duration. Ten months before Bernstein's death.
The finest of symphonies, conducted by the finest of conductors of Beethoven, played by the finest of orchestras of Beethoven. What more can one expect?
The only word I could utter after the first movement was “God”… such a marvelous performance. This performance is a treasure of humanity. May it live forever.
I've been listening to this performance since I was born. Thank you so much for posting the video-- adding sight to sound after all these years is nothing short of magical.
A real moment of history - I remember those months of late 1989 too, Such a jubilant concert! Last week watched another performance of this iconic work, by the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle, filmed at London's Barbican Hall in February of this year: it must have been one of the last major Beethoven evenings they were able to offer with a full audience at the venue before the pandemic lockdowns made such shows impossible in Europe for the rest of the year. When we're out of this I hope they will perform the work once again to a packed live audience!
@@nickakdag No, I was stationed in Central America. Panama, at least at that time. I eventually got assigned to Germany from 2005-2009, but not Berlin, Rhineland Pfalz.
Part of the 2nd movement was used the theme song for the NBC Nightly News in the 1960s. I only heard that small bit of it until 1973, when I finally heard it in its entirety-- and that brought tears to my 13-year-old eyes!
For me the best 9th Symphony ever played by a modern conductor, both for the interpretation itself and for the special meaning of the hystorical moment in which it was played. Bernstein one of my favourite conductors, next to the genius Sinopoli and maestro Claudio Abbado. When I came home that Christmas day and turned on the TV, it was a lightning to me. Every time I choose the right moment to play this CD and seize every nuance in music and lyrics. 9th symphony has a special meaning to me, because of my father listening it and explaining me when I were a boy.
The most amazing thing will ever be this 3rd movment, its incredible what he did there, as if he already knew his upcoming death. It became his personal requiem.
Yesterday, I saw the last few minutes of this recording played at Beethoven's Birth House, and I'm still stunned by it... RIP Beethoven, RIP Bernstein.
The fall of the iron curtain...The end of the harrowing endless Cold War! No one can ever describe fully the emotions of that day in History. And it is here commemorated appropriately by a most thrilling performance of Beethoven's epochal 9th Symphony by an international consortium of orchestral players under the baton of the inestimably great Leonard Bernstein...!
The first time I heard THIS particular video, my emotions were raw. I became the music. I am a Beethoven enthusiast and have listened to many versions of most of his works. This one (with headphones on, of course) makes me tremble inside. It is so powerful you just can't stop the tears sometimes. It should be played in his museum or kept safe. It is the best I've heard...ever
Oh my goodness. This performance is magnificent! The perfect piece to celebrate the reunification of Germany and a magnificent interpretation by Maestro Bernstein and this wonderful orchestra and chorus. This equals or exceeds any performance I've heard of this piece. Beethoven would be pleased. Thanks also to the recording engineers for doing such a superb job of micing and recording the instruments and soloists. This is incredible. Thank you!
I attended the US Defense Language Institute in 1990. The CD of this performance on Deutsche Grammophone got me thru DLI. Listening to this piece, then realizing that when Beethoven performed it he was deaf, just amazing. One of the most, if not the most beautiful piece of Western Music. 1:11:32 to 1:13:24, just perfectly beautiful.
I was a freshman in college when the wall came down. It was a time of joy, celebration, and optimism, when all things seemed possible. A cd of this concert was a huge part of the soundtrack of my life at the time, and I was delighted to find the actual video of this historic concert here on youtube. Thank you.
Esta es mi versión favorita, los solistas (soprano y bajo) de lo mejor que he escuchado si conocen de otra que se le asemeje, por favor pasen el dato, 200 años parecen poco para la grandeza de esta obra.
Amazing! I saw this live on TV when I was a kid. From the CNN coverage of the wall coming down to NPR broadcasting this concert live! Always been a huge fan of Maestro Bernstein. He didn’t live long after this concert…but the notes from this amazing interpretation lives on and on. An audible orgasm to my ears 🥰😌!
I saw this performance for the first time at home in Tennessee and was lifted to Heaven! Years later, I bought the DVD and CD, then later gave it to my daughter. All other performances are less than this one, it is perfection as only Bernstein could bring out. But I later heard commentaries that the musicians chosen were simply the best and knew what he wanted. As well as the soloists. Oneness and flow and such weaving of the movements. I have heard other performances but they were choppy, rushed and disconnected. Thank you Bernstein for your lasting interpretation of this magnificent creation. (The only negative thought I had was what took the audience so long to start their applause after the epic close?! :)). Oh, to have been their.
A beautiful brain composing this magnificent piece of music and maestro Bernstein LIVING every note of it ❤ goosebumps and tears whose reason I can’t understand
Credits for the vocalists: June Anderson, soprano; Sarah Walker, mezzo-soprano; Klaus König, tenor; Jan-Hendrik Rootering, bass Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Members of the Rundfunkchor Berlin; Kinderchor der Philharmonie Dresden
@@terrellholmes2726 seriously, i love this about their generation, it's like the scene in Blast from the Past, when the locks release, and the parents out of the blue, with no music, start doing the twist to convey sheer happiness ...
Freiheit schoner gotterfunken portion of ode to joy is on a pbs special called classical music rewind which is presented during their pledge drives during the year. This is a wonderful video of Mr. Bernstein conducting this great piece of music during this great concert. This was the perfect way to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.
One of Humanity's crowing creative achievements, glad to live in an era where we can enjoy this free, in high res, and without any caps on number of repeats. RIP and long live Beethoven, Bernstein and the entire team that made this possible. If you're ever feeling bereft of inspiration or purpose, close your eyes and do one full round of this from start to finish, guaranteed to explode your neural pathways out of inaction!
Bersteins joy during Ode To Joy is such an appropriate and accurate reflection of OUR joy during this triumphant masterpiece MINDBLOWING PERFECTION!!!!
There's a lot of feeling when I listen to this. That word change of singing "freedom" over "joy" makes this piece much deeper in meaning, and more relevant to social and political environment.
I am always blown away by the beauty of this work and by the knowledge that Beethoven never heard it performed because by the time he composed it, he was totally deaf.
Watching Leonard Bernstein conduct is like watching Michael Angelo paint. A true artist. And this was only a few months before he died. I marvel that Beethoven, deaf when he wrote this, could keep all these notes and instruments in his head. He remembered what each note sounded like.
I have listened to, and also watched, dozens of different performances by different orchestras and conductors literally hundreds of times to Beethoven's 9th, all of varying qualities, tempos, and considerations...this one is my favorite, played with great sensitivity and emotion, and respect for the composer. The vocals, to my ear, are as good as it gets. God bless the memory of Leonard Bernstein, and may God's grace be upon Ludwig von Beethoven eternally for composing this most magnificent piece of music. NB to all: The opening notes of the 4th Movement are a Notice! a caution, to all the flawed and imperfect inhabitants of the earth. Be reconciled to the Father, and to your fellow man.
Imagine a deaf man composing this masterpiece without even a piano to play the notes on! Beethoven composed it all in his head! Truly he was the greatest musical genius of all time.
Listening to this on the last days of 2024…probably my favorite performance of this masterpiece.
Maestro Leonard Bernstein was terminally ill at the time of this concert devoted to the reunification of Germany. He was diagnosed with mesothielioma and had less then a year to live. The orchestra was made up of musicians from the United States, England, the Soviet Union, and France, and many had never played together. The symphony chosen for this event was Beethoven's Ninth; a particularly difficult piece which included vocal soloists and a full chorale. Bernstein conducted the the concert brilliantly. A very moving presentation, and quite challenging given the state of his health. He was one of the finest musical directors to ever hold a baton, and a well known humanitarian. Bravo Maestro.
And yet, this is, most likely, one of the best renditions of the 9th Symphony ever.. imho. I keep listening to it since I was a kid, and it still moves me -- to tears -- every time.
It can be said that he was America's teacher in its relationship to music, especially classical music. His educational concerts with the New York Philharmonic remain unforgettable...
Pin this!
Terminally ill, yet a fitting way to go out at a mountain peak summit, a pinnacle for him. No doubt he is conducting an even higher, heavenly version above. Just imagine the heavenly host all singing this with Bernstein conducting!
It was a full tribute to Beethoven then. Wasn't he almost completely deaf when he conducted this for the first time? Edit: I didn't realize he was there just for show. Someone else conducted it for him (Beethoven that is, not Bernstein).
Please, whatever you do, don’t take this amazing video down. I alone will add more than 500 viewings to it.
Me too!
About 1-2x a year I come here and am relieved it's still up
@@_loegan And me. Watched it live on BBC TV and it's stayed with me ever since.
Thats my sentiment also. It's a historic concert!
Declare it a "World Heritage Video" OR have "The United Nations" adopt a sternly-written Joint Resolution demanding its ongoing, worldwide distribution, in every conceivable format that's existed from 1900-onward. Or, ya know, I'll see ya back here again real soon! ;)
What a historic concert it was. And how appropriate that the Maestro, Leonard Bernstein, was the conductor. No doubt he, beginning his journey on to the next life , a more heavenly existence , was conducting with inspiration from the heavenly hosts. You can see it in his expression. It gives me chills.
My husband and I are from Vienna and were blessed to attend this concert, commemorating what might possibly be one of the most significant events of our lifetimes. Growing up in Vienna in the 1970s and studying music at Universität Wien during the 80s, we remember very well when Germany was still divided. It was such a deeply emotional event to us when the Berlin Wall came down. It seemed like humanity had finally gotten it right. We’re still praying that we do one day.
We miss you, Maestro. A light was lost to this world when you left. 🙏🙏🙏✌🏼With love from Austria. 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹🌺🥂🌹🎼🎵🎶❤
It was Christmas Eve! I came home and this was live on PBS, it just started! I was about 14. I watched the entire thing, mesmerized and in awe of how wonderful it was. I did not know I was watching history. Now I watch this almost every month!!! please don't take this down!!! It is perfect!!!
At 2AM you often end up in the weird part of TH-cam. Not this time, not me. I have deliberately searched for this masterpiece to listen to.
me too
LOL. 2:13 AM when I read this.
@@Lepidopray And when you do find it, you are up 1 hour, 33 minutes and 51 seconds later -- no matter HOW early you need to wake up the current/next day!
Haha 1:58 AM here, searching back to this every few years.
RIP Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 - October 14, 1990), age 72
You will be remembered as a legend
Oh my gosh, I didn't realize that Leonard Bernstein died within a year after this concert! What a fitting tribute to one of the greatest conductors, one of the greatest composers, and one of the greatest events, of all time! I don't think that anyone born after, say, 1983, can truly appreciate how remarkable this concert was! Watching this after seeing the collapse of he Berlin Wall was just INCREDIBLE!!!
as a 13 year old saying no one born after 1983 is a horrible horrible thing to say
classical music is for everyone.@@mikenekosama4426
BRAVÍSSIMO, Maestro! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Very moving performance. Maestro Bernstein conducting music by Beethoven - a German composer - for German unification!!!
HAPPY 200TH BIRTHDAY, BEETHOVEN'S 9TH!
I'm nearing fully a half-century in age, but as a childlike young example of a young man, I wept openly as this was shown *in the USA on public broadcasting, for all* and I'm neither of German ancestry, nor had even visited Europe AT ALL, at that juncture... But I knew I had to see what of the biggest historical event in my life, then...my SOUL ERUPTED.
See? I've no musical training, play no instrument, and John Williams was the only "symphonic-type" I'd deign listen to, but growing up with the scar & tension of The Wall, a forcefully-divided Europe, and the looming Nuclear Annihilation that the "Cold War" of the USA & CCCP, with all of life in the balance & and no hands upon the tillers, so to speak, that this was my second to revel!
(Somehow knowing, even in my teenaged heart, that History was to fill the void it abhors with new, different horrors...in former Yugoslav Republics, African starvation & murders, Tiananmen Square, Arab-Israeli wars, Kuwaiti invasion, etc, etc, etc)
Regardless of all of that, my body, sans gracefulness & rhythm, and paired with eyes blinded by big drops drenching my dimply, grinning face, DANCED, SANG, and HOPED, connected, pre-internet or mobile phones, just how soundly so many MILLIONS of us around the world, though understandably taught to be wary, would rest just a hint more deeply tonight, moving into the future.
I may have been wrong.
(Strike that: I was wrong in thinking that wrongs were beaten like a video game boss, then you level-up, never to face those challenges again, once you've bested them.)
I didn't understand the cyclical nature of Geopolitics, being years from Uni & Adulthood at the time, without the knowledge to read, play, or appreciate Fine Art in any meaningful way... BUT IT WAS THE MOST UPLIFTING TIME OF MY LIFE, to that point. This performance signified Unity & Healing, but it brought me HOPE. Not much, admittedly, though enough for rapturous emotion on my part. But it was HOPE. And it was, for too brief of a window, the FIRST, REAL lesson that the young can believe that Impossible things are often only impossible because no one else tried to fix it, or quit too soon.
I'm older now, and by about 70% or so . The Earth has never stopped being a perilous place, just with new faces, and with the next trigger fingers over same old RED BUTTONS. I realize the "goal" is an eternal "process" to be solved, then re-solved, perpetually.
Regardless, I shall weep when the swell of youthful exuberance fights its way out of my deepest recesses.
I shall never cease to weep in JOY, lest I forget that tears have other purposes, like in 1989.
(Frankly, paired to my inability NOT to weep every time that I even hear a snippet, even in public!
If ever I don't, or quit, I suppose that I'll have truly died inside.
This 50-yr-old Me would NEVER have written so much, especially about music, on YT, ever... but the nearly-adult Version of myself, 33 years ago, decided He had something that He felt He should share. I couldn't deny my "inner-adolescent-self" his "twice-a-decade indulgence" by posting like I forgot 33 years ago, couldn't spell "cynicism" and then, blessedly, END THIS DIATRIBE.
P.S. -- Then we're going to move, sing, and let emotions & tears have their way! Many days, this kept me got me through dark days, and I was able to have many, more days afterward, due to the 9th Symphony.
"An Ode to Joy" I am grateful & humbled by it.
I unfortunately missed a lot of this. I was in my second year of college. I knew about the fall of the Berlin Wall on the news, but I had trouble grasping its significance, until the fall of the Soviet Union, two years later. Up to that point, the most significant event around the Wall that I'd heard was Reagan speaking at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" At the time there were those in the U.S. who thought this was sacrilege. It upset the applecart in what we saw as U.S.-Soviet relations. It deserved to be upset!
I didn't pay much attention to the days' events around the reunification of Berlin. I think I completely missed this concert. I learned of it later, and really came to treasure it. I have since listened to retrospectives talking in detail about what led to reunification.
BTW, something I didn't know until just a few years ago was that Berlin was in fact 90 miles *inside* East Germany! I'd always had this idea in my head that East and West Germany were split through Berlin, as if the border of the two countries ran through the city. In fact, the Wall wasn't to keep people in East Berlin (and East Germany), but to keep people *out* of West Berlin! It was a wall that the Soviets built all around West Berlin, as if to quarantine it, because people had been escaping East Germany, and gaining asylum through West Berlin.
Once I learned this, I was amazed, because obviously the Western Allies controlled this small, little piece of East Germany, deep inside enemy territory, as it were, but how?? The only thing I could conclude was that it was an uneasy peace, with the Allies having a credible threat of force if the Soviets ever decided to take it, and do away with the concession.
You may not call yourself a musician, but as a musician, may I say that your words have the soul of music in them.
J Barton, one tiny correction: your writing is anything but a "diatribe". It is an inspirational personal ode to life and hope, and I thank you for sharing your growth and loving appreciation for one of the finest pieces ever written.
amazing. I'm reading this while in Russia. I am 26 years old. I’m about the same as you were in 1989 and I experience exactly the same feelings! thank you, thank you for sharing your thoughts, I understand that now I’m definitely not alone!
This was probably one of the lasts by Bernstein before he passed away. Good thing it's the 9th symphony and especially at such important event.
the same way as Beethoven, he died with style and finesse
@@Hercules674 Composed some important strings quartets after the 9th Symphony, including the Grosse Fugue, a very relevant composition. It was a farewell to symphonic compositions, not to all kind compositions. By the way, the Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was composed more or less in the time of the 9th.
@@codonauta Oh yes. The final few quartets are magnificent. Amazing work.
It actually was the last. He died ten months later.
@@jamiescott9609 the last Beethoven 9 he conducted *
How this was pulled off pre internet is amazing to me. The phone calls, logistics, rehearsal time needed, and getting players from different countries all to work together in a tight time frame must have been a nightmare. Well done for all those involved
A logistical nightmare and perhaps a musical and sociopolitical joy? As a person who grew up behind the wall, the Freiheit! Still rings true so many years later. Dankeschön to all involved!!
@@heidiclaireI grew up on the other side of the Wall, wanting nothing more than my German brothers and sisters to taste the freedom that I had.
Grüße aus Niedersachsen ❤️
People back then were just used to getting things done in short order without offering up excuses...they didn't call those who served in World War II the greatest generation for nothing
היום כבר לא כותבים מוזיקה כזאת, שהנפש נחה והלב דוהר, אין ולא יהיה, הסימפוניה האהובה עליי כל פעם צמרמורות מחדש
Bernstein's the best!!! He doesn't rush through the music like he was going to a race / fire!!! He savors every note!!!
Do not take this down!!!
That is exactly the opposite of what Beethoven wanted.
Lol I guess he knows better than Beethoven
It is not a matter of rushing or not, but rather if a natural singer is being emulated. People create myths out of incomplete information and expectations. Slower takes feel more sophisticated while faster playing is more more passionate.
The first movement is is just in the okay range on the slow end but many climaxes are buzzkills because the tempo taken is slower.
@@samuelkuo In one case, tradition has had the Scherzo’s trio taken at a faster than indicated tempo compared to the “HIP” practice.
Well that’s unusual for him. He typically likes to speed thru symphonies like his life depended on it
I've been listening to this recording repeatedly in the last few days, since the invasion of Ukraine. It reminds me of the unifying nature of music, and that humanity is bound together inspite of all our differences, even in the darkest times.
TOO BAD WE NEED TO SEE SUFFERING TO SEE THE BEAUTY IN LIFE.
@@jakobetheanimevtuber4102 i always try to see the beauty in life. The wonders of life are just amazing. I want to embrace the world every day. But sometimes you just need reassurance. That's what this recording does for me. Peace.
Yes. . And Womenschen, too!! Slava Ukraini. Best from Kentucky.
@@AlanCanon2222 It’s not my intention to attack you or something like that. But „Menschen“ means Humans not Men. So Womenschen makes no Sense. It’s already gender neutral.😉
This work is a Rorschach test of music. People see what they want to see.
3:55 - First movement
22:54 - Second movement
36:40 - Third movement
57:15 - Fourth movement:
• 1:05:57 - Beginning of the Ode to Freedom
• 1:13:23 - " Freiheit Schöner Götterfunken "
1:25:50 - Applause and credits.
1:05:58
You forgot the end where the audience applauds for EIGHT MINUTES!
@@HunterPhenomMakoy k I will ad that
@@DaviSilva-oc7iv haha I’d love to know how long they actually went for since the video cuts out. Simply amazing.
That has to be the longest standing ovation/applause I've ever heard!
In my opinion...this is the greatest performance of the greatest piece of music ever composed. Bravo.
Cannot with any sort of strength dispute or disagree
AMAAAAAAZING
he did this a year before his death how beautiful he lived long enough to see that cursed wall fall.
We need to tell our children that, yes we all will die, yes Earth would die in billions of years, yes there could be no God, but THIS, this music, this joy, is eternal and divine and worth living for.
In the early 70's I attended a performance of Beethoven's 9th at Symphony Hall in Boston. The scheduled conductor, William Steinberg, was ill and replaced at the last minute by Leonard Bernstein. What a special day that was!
That gives me chills just thinking about it. What a wonderful turn of luck for you. (Not so much for the scheduled composer, though.)
Bernstein is the conductor. There is no one else. Even if it was Steinberg as a first.
Was there a raging big blizzard out that night?
@@billgately2291 as a matter of fact, yes.
You are so lucky!
This makes me feel alive! Best version of this musical masterpiece!
@@storealope None other than the late and GREAT Leonard Bernstein!!! So very sad that the world lost him less than a year after this incredible concert!!
In 1989 I (a physics major) was in the University of Louisville symphony. I had two friends from the orchestra from Berlin and Bavaria, who I knew longed to be in Germany for unification, but couldn't be, so I went to the hardware store and bought them two small sledgehammers in commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Few who weren't alive at the time may appreciate what a momentous historical event it was. The exultation of "die Welt", as they say, was "up to Eleven". Decades of human suffering ended that day. I've never played the Ninth (I'm a double bass player) but I have played the Sixth and Seventh: the Seventh in concert, and the Sixth in a one-time-only run through, unrehearsed, with the U of L orchestra, at my own request. I was destined to be a scientist but I am still a musician, although not a very good one.
WOW❤
I grew up on Leonard Bernstein's Youth Concerts on TV, which served as my introduction to classical music. I remember watching this live in 1989 with my wife...it is as spectacular a performance now as it seemed then. Danke, Maestro; Mögen Sie immer als Segen in Erinnerung bleiben, solange die Musik lebt.
It is a pleasure to hear that they sing "Freiheit" as Schiller originally intended, instead of "Freude" as he was finally compelled to write. Liberty... a word that authorities of all times and countries do not particularly relish.
Oh man, this version always makes me cry. It hits straight to my heart.
Great memory! Our daughter was born 8 or 9 days before the wall came down, in Hannover. I recall a lot of people were downtown eating ice cream. They came from Berlin to experience the west. Recall watching this performance on Christmas 1989. A very noble performance. A friend offered us tickets. Wish we had gone.
How a miserably-ill, skint, deaf, afflicted by dropsy and almost-forgotten musician could create this brilliance is surely a testament to Divine inspiration. The quartet writing alone is unbelievable! Thank You Ludwig.
The greatest performance of the most magnificent music and singing in the musical world I’ve ever never experienced . How I wish I were at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin then to listen to such touching music and singing created by a musician worth the world’s utmost respect and remembrance.
He wasn't almost forgotten - in fact, he thought this himself, so you're not completely wrong. But just as he was going to move the premier of this work to Berlin, he was petitioned by his fans and friends to keep it in Vienna. But that still doesn't take away from the other difficulties he was facing at all.
Exactly, the sound from Heaven entered the world through a dude who has lived a painful yet powerful life.
Well put.
the music takes one out of one's body and compels one out into the stars....but what's heaven got to do with it?
I always enjoyed Bernstein’s conducting. I can see the expressions on his face, he savers it, and at the end, he closes his eyes, and remarks on what he has accomplished. With a smile, and a bow, he starts. He expresses what should be expressed. The beauty, the accidentals, the accents, and the scenery. Remember, Beethoven wrote is mostly minor keys, and that expresses beauty, passion. People see sadness in that key, and describe it as sad, but most people don’t know that it can be described as Joyful. Take Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It sounds and expresses, beautiful birds, a scene in an act.
Take Every Lullaby from every movie, describes a scene, talking about sleep.
This is a masterpiece and Bernstein did MORE than excellent to express this piece and conduct it.
This is why I ILove some of NewYork and Massachusetts....
Watched this with my late grandmother and we both in tears.
In my opinion this is the best version of the symphony. It is one of few good things that youtube did when it recommended it to me. At the end of the fourth movement you just wanna sing with them and wake up the neighbourhood in midnight
I've listened to it hundreds of times. and will continue to listen
hard to imagine a human could compose such heavenly music. may beethoven and bernstein both rest in peace. such a pleasure to listen to this. thank you for this video
You know what I'd do if anyone were to ask me "what makes life worth living?" I'd play them the part from 55:27-55:55... that segment makes life worth living for me. Unfiltered sublime beauty. Beethoven may have had an incredibly challenging life, but wow did it lead him to this symphony, a beautiful gift for humanity. 🙌🎶
Greetings. This symphony makes me cry for humanity, laugh for it, and want to fight for its existence.
Yes. indeed.
This symphony shows what humans are capable of. If I can write a piece of music that does for someone what this piece of music does for me, I will have done something good in this world.
That portion has always sounded to me like someone earnestly speaking a bittersweet truth about something.
If you’re going
To San Francisco
This is the best version ever!!!!! The best conductor performance too!!! I can't get enough of watching this video!!!
Probably the greatest performance i ever witnessed. Long standing ovation. The intensity in Bernstein at the end says it all
It was/is one of the most amazing moments in the history of music; 3 geniuses in the same piece, Bernstein, Beethoven, and Schiller! Bravo! Bravissimo!
I know that a symphony is comprised of notes and rests and multiple instruments all playing their part; and sometimes that's what the audience hears. But to me, here, Bernstein is conducting - sans score, I might add - pure emotion. It's on his face and in his body and somehow flowing from the orchestra as well. This is magic.
Bernstein knew how important this concert was and how many people worldwide were watching it (although I was surprised to note that the concert didn’t play on either French or Soviet TV, perhaps it was broadcast on radio). By the fourth movement, his grin clearly showed that this strange amalgam of musicians from both East and West Germany, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and the United States nailed it. He knew how ill he was and that this would be part of his legacy - in a sense signaling the final end of the War.
This masterpiece has literally every mood a person can be in, wow.
This is certainly one of the greatest, if not.THE GREATEST aristic achievements of all time. I have instructed mu family to play the 3rd movement to revive me from a coma. Brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear the beautiful sound of hope that arises from the dueling adagios. MAGNIFICIENT!
Dank Leonard Bersten eröffnet sich der Sinne dieser Symphony " Ode an die Freude" . Bernstein war einer vom größten Musiker des 20 Jahrhunderts. Diese Aufnahme ist besten Beweis dafür.
I remember during a lull in our Christmas Day celebration in '89, I turned on the TV , flipped a couple of channels and landed on this live broadcast at the start. I was amazed by the gravity of the moment and the beauty of the music and remained glued to it for the duration. Ten months before Bernstein's death.
The finest of symphonies, conducted by the finest of conductors of Beethoven, played by the finest of orchestras of Beethoven. What more can one expect?
The only word I could utter after the first movement was “God”… such a marvelous performance. This performance is a treasure of humanity. May it live forever.
I've been listening to this performance since I was born. Thank you so much for posting the video-- adding sight to sound after all these years is nothing short of magical.
A real moment of history - I remember those months of late 1989 too, Such a jubilant concert! Last week watched another performance of this iconic work, by the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle, filmed at London's Barbican Hall in February of this year: it must have been one of the last major Beethoven evenings they were able to offer with a full audience at the venue before the pandemic lockdowns made such shows impossible in Europe for the rest of the year. When we're out of this I hope they will perform the work once again to a packed live audience!
@@louise_rose I can't wait for that day to come.
The greatest piece of music ever composed. A gift from God!
It seems like only yesterday. I was a young man in the US military at the time.
Were you there?
@@nickakdag No, I was stationed in Central America. Panama, at least at that time. I eventually got assigned to Germany from 2005-2009, but not Berlin, Rhineland Pfalz.
@@MJA5 What did it feel like when the Wall came down? I was only about 6 years old. Barely remember it
Im not even born that time haha
I saw this... live... and recorded on VHS at the time.. brings back a lot of memories
why does the second movement always bring me to tears ... love it
Part of the 2nd movement was used the theme song for the NBC Nightly News in the 1960s. I only heard that small bit of it until 1973, when I finally heard it in its entirety-- and that brought tears to my 13-year-old eyes!
Called the Huntley-Brinkley report for many years. I loved the music when I was kid, and wanted them to play more than 20 seconds.
Maravilloso 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Greatest ever performance of the 9th. Unquestionably.
The jump landing on the final beat is all of us in that moment; It is the exultant human spirit. Thank you, dear Maestro!
Thats the way this symphony should sound, so passionate and emotional, beautiful and powerfull conducted by the greatest conductor of all time.
KARAJAN WAS THE GREATEST CONDUCTOR OF ALL TIME! THIS ASSHOLE IS TO DAMN SLOW!
Since I was 14 years old I heard this wonder and at 16 I saw this world concert: wonderful!!!.
Thank you Leonard and musicians
Wow, you've been lucky.
For me the best 9th Symphony ever played by a modern conductor, both for the interpretation itself and for the special meaning of the hystorical moment in which it was played. Bernstein one of my favourite conductors, next to the genius Sinopoli and maestro Claudio Abbado.
When I came home that Christmas day and turned on the TV, it was a lightning to me. Every time I choose the right moment to play this CD and seize every nuance in music and lyrics. 9th symphony has a special meaning to me, because of my father listening it and explaining me when I were a boy.
Yes, my father was from Austria and taught me to love Beethoven and, in fact, classical music! I will forever be grateful!
The most amazing thing will ever be this 3rd movment, its incredible what he did there, as if he already knew his upcoming death. It became his personal requiem.
They gave Bernstein and the orchestra those 3 seconds of transcendental silence before applauding.
IMHO one of the greatest live musical events of the 20th century.
Of the history IMO there is nothing like this out there
Can’t think of a greater or more poignant one.
INCONMENSURABLE.
Yesterday, I saw the last few minutes of this recording played at Beethoven's Birth House, and I'm still stunned by it...
RIP Beethoven, RIP Bernstein.
What an absolutely GLORIOUS concert! Thank you for sharing this!
I'll never stop loving this performance.
The fall of the iron curtain...The end of the harrowing endless Cold War! No one can ever describe fully the emotions of that day in History. And it is here commemorated appropriately by a most thrilling performance of Beethoven's epochal 9th Symphony by an international consortium of orchestral players under the baton of the inestimably great Leonard Bernstein...!
The first time I heard THIS particular video, my emotions were raw. I became the music. I am a Beethoven enthusiast and have listened to many versions of most of his works. This one (with headphones on, of course) makes me tremble inside. It is so powerful you just can't stop the tears sometimes.
It should be played in his museum or kept safe. It is the best I've heard...ever
When taking the historical context of what had occurred when this was performed, this is one of, if not THE, most beautiful musical performances ever.
Oh my goodness. This performance is magnificent! The perfect piece to celebrate the reunification of Germany and a magnificent interpretation by Maestro Bernstein and this wonderful orchestra and chorus. This equals or exceeds any performance I've heard of this piece. Beethoven would be pleased. Thanks also to the recording engineers for doing such a superb job of micing and recording the instruments and soloists. This is incredible. Thank you!
The celebration was actually for the fall of the Wall. German reunification wasn't till a bit later. But I agree with your other comments, of course.
For us here in Brazil, today this masterpiece represents a breath of Hope!!! 🕊
Truly the best orchestra Performance I have ever heard
I attended the US Defense Language Institute in 1990. The CD of this performance on Deutsche Grammophone got me thru DLI. Listening to this piece, then realizing that when Beethoven performed it he was deaf, just amazing. One of the most, if not the most beautiful piece of Western Music. 1:11:32 to 1:13:24, just perfectly beautiful.
I was a freshman in college when the wall came down. It was a time of joy, celebration, and optimism, when all things seemed possible. A cd of this concert was a huge part of the soundtrack of my life at the time, and I was delighted to find the actual video of this historic concert here on youtube. Thank you.
Stop copyright striking this masterpiece!
Gosh the way he embraces the concert master afterward
This is more than special. It's more than beautiful.
This is one of the best performance of Beethoven #9.
Masterpiece. This kind of video should never should be deleted.
Esta es mi versión favorita, los solistas (soprano y bajo) de lo mejor que he escuchado si conocen de otra que se le asemeje, por favor pasen el dato, 200 años parecen poco para la grandeza de esta obra.
Amazing! I saw this live on TV when I was a kid. From the CNN coverage of the wall coming down to NPR broadcasting this concert live! Always been a huge fan of Maestro Bernstein. He didn’t live long after this concert…but the notes from this amazing interpretation lives on and on. An audible orgasm to my ears 🥰😌!
This was the peak.
13:41 its pure magic and fire. That part is just what inspires me to study and live and breathe music every day of my life until I left this world
Simply breathtaking, both for Beethoven and Bernstein's GREATNESS
I saw this performance for the first time at home in Tennessee and was lifted to Heaven! Years later, I bought the DVD and CD, then later gave it to my daughter. All other performances are less than this one, it is perfection as only Bernstein could bring out. But I later heard commentaries that the musicians chosen were simply the best and knew what he wanted. As well as the soloists. Oneness and flow and such weaving of the movements. I have heard other performances but they were choppy, rushed and disconnected. Thank you Bernstein for your lasting interpretation of this magnificent creation. (The only negative thought I had was what took the audience so long to start their applause after the epic close?! :)). Oh, to have been their.
A beautiful brain composing this magnificent piece of music and maestro Bernstein LIVING every note of it ❤ goosebumps and tears whose reason I can’t understand
Only the best orchestras gather, and the best performances by the best conductors.
Credits for the vocalists: June Anderson, soprano; Sarah Walker, mezzo-soprano; Klaus König, tenor; Jan-Hendrik Rootering, bass
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Members of the Rundfunkchor Berlin; Kinderchor der Philharmonie Dresden
29:06 just look at him go!! Thanks, Lenny.
Lenny was doing the twist! Looked like a Studio 54 flashback to me!
@@terrellholmes2726 seriously, i love this about their generation, it's like the scene in Blast from the Past, when the locks release, and the parents out of the blue, with no music, start doing the twist to convey sheer happiness ...
Freiheit schoner gotterfunken portion of ode to joy is on a pbs special called classical music rewind which is presented during their pledge drives during the year. This is a wonderful video of Mr. Bernstein conducting this great piece of music during this great concert. This was the perfect way to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The best performance ever for this symphony...with no doubt
Merci, maestro et tous !
One of Humanity's crowing creative achievements, glad to live in an era where we can enjoy this free, in high res, and without any caps on number of repeats. RIP and long live Beethoven, Bernstein and the entire team that made this possible.
If you're ever feeling bereft of inspiration or purpose, close your eyes and do one full round of this from start to finish, guaranteed to explode your neural pathways out of inaction!
Feels like nice and cozy 😊
Гении! Браво Бетховен и Бернстайну! Песня мира, песня дружбы... Гимн, написанный для всего человечества.
Bersteins joy during Ode To Joy is such an appropriate and accurate reflection of OUR joy during this triumphant masterpiece
MINDBLOWING PERFECTION!!!!
There's a lot of feeling when I listen to this. That word change of singing "freedom" over "joy" makes this piece much deeper in meaning, and more relevant to social and political environment.
I am always blown away by the beauty of this work and by the knowledge that Beethoven never heard it performed because by the time he composed it, he was totally deaf.
Watching Leonard Bernstein conduct is like watching Michael Angelo paint. A true artist. And this was only a few months before he died.
I marvel that Beethoven, deaf when he wrote this, could keep all these notes and instruments in his head. He remembered what each note sounded like.
Quanta emozione anche dopo tanti anni. Grazie Maestro
That was the most applause I've ever heard haha! Almost ten minutes of it!
I have listened to, and also watched, dozens of different performances by different orchestras and conductors literally hundreds of times to Beethoven's 9th, all of varying qualities, tempos, and considerations...this one is my favorite, played with great sensitivity and emotion, and respect for the composer. The vocals, to my ear, are as good as it gets. God bless the memory of Leonard Bernstein, and may God's grace be upon Ludwig von Beethoven eternally for composing this most magnificent piece of music.
NB to all: The opening notes of the 4th Movement are a Notice! a caution, to all the flawed and imperfect inhabitants of the earth. Be reconciled to the Father, and to your fellow man.
ici nous sommes dans les hautes sphères de la musique
Even the slightest look of approval or joy of your contribution to the orchestra makes you feel ecstatic!