Our season begins with one of music history’s great endings. With his first eight symphonies, Ludwig van Beethoven brought an inflammatory power to music that had never been experienced before. For his last symphony, the composer went one step further. For the first time in the history of the symphony, he included human voices. In the work’s last movement, soloists and a massed chorus proclaim the words of Friedrich Schiller’s uplifting poem of unity, An die Freude - the Ode to Joy.

Beethoven’s Ninth is the final step in the composer’s symphonic journey and a transformative experience for musicians and audiences alike. After consummate performances of Beethoven’s symphonies in Bergen over recent seasons, Artistic Partner Jan Willem de Vriend returns to the orchestra with Norwegian soloists and our own choirs for Beethoven’s symphonic journey from a brutal, joyless world to one of uplifting and embracing brotherhood.

Before it, he conducts the world premiere of Ørjan Matre’s own reflection on Beethoven’s continuing resonance, Freude.