The most famous of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies, the Ninth, is a distillation of those ideals of humanity and brotherhood that are the ideological basis of all of the composer’s work, to celebrate the arrival of the Christmas holidays. It is the traditional Christmas concert of the Rai National Symphony Orchestra, live on Friday 23 December at 21.15 on Rai 5, live from 20.30 also on Radio 3 and broadcast live on RaiPlay.
Ion Marin is busy on the podium, replacing the struggling Fabio Luisi. Next to him are the voices of soprano Ulyana Alexyuk, contralto Valentina Stadler, tenor Nikki Spence and bass Thomason. The choir is the Teatro Reggio in Turin, and is conducted by Andrea Secchi.
Born in Romania, Marín studied piano, composition and composition at the Enescu Academy in Bucharest and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1986 he moved to Vienna, where he worked as resident conductor at the Staatsoper, then conducted by Claudio Abbado. Having settled permanently in Switzerland, in 2012 he promoted the “Cantus Mundi” and “Symphonia Mundi” projects in Romania, promoting education and social inclusion of the most disadvantaged children through music. During his career, he has recorded more than 40 titles for such brands as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI, Sony and Philips, receiving many important awards.
Symphony no. 9 in D minor reference. Beethoven’s 125 for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra saw the light of day in 1824, eleven years after the completion of Seventh and Octave. The pregnancy was long and tiring and took place in total deafness to its creator. The synthesis of the huge volume and the overcoming of the instrumental character of the symphony, with the introduction of the voices of Schiller’s poem An die Freude (To Joy) in the last movement, raised the Ninth to an authentic peak of Beethoven’s musical and human thought.
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