More castaways on Desert Island Discs have chosen Beethoven's ninth symphony for company than any other piece. The symphony's 97 desert island fans range from Fred Zinneman to Claudio Abbado and from Glenys Kinnock to Enoch Powell. And it's a fair bet that when the votes are counted in the current "Your Desert Island Discs" poll of listeners, that Beethoven's last and longest symphony will be somewhere there or thereabouts too.
Lots of other composers, from Haydn to Shostakovich, have written ninth symphonies. But only one is known simply as The Ninth Symphony. Right from the moment of its first performance in Vienna in 1824, Beethoven's D minor symphony op 125 has enjoyed unique status.
Certainly, none has cast a longer shadow over later composers. Brahms battled for years before he managed to write his first symphony — which was immediately dubbed Beethoven's Tenth. Bruckner and Mahler were both oppressed by the problem of writing their own ninths — and Bruckner died before finishing his. Mahler even reorchestrated Beethoven's Ninth before writing his own.
It is not hard to understand why the Ninth enjoys such iconic status. It is the classic symphonic journey from darkness to light, from minor to major, and from chaos to order. It is also a massive undertaking, still one of the longest pieces in the symphonic repertoire. Beethoven's introduction of a chorus in the final movement — singing Schiller's Ode to Joy — gives the piece the searingly optimistic finale to end all finales. The message that all mankind will be brothers (no mention of sisters) is at the heart of its appeal.
That universal message has always carried unique power in modern Germany. When the controversial Wagner festival in Bayreuth reopened after the Third Reich in 1951, Beethoven's symphony was chosen to mark the occasion – good Germany chasing out bad Germany. When the Berlin Wall fell, the Ninth was performed to celebrate the country's reunification too. Nowadays the Ninth is also the anthem of the European Union. No one knows if the EU will still exist in a century's time. But the Ninth, and the statement it makes, are indestructible – even on a desert island.
