Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo: Choral Fantasy

About the Event

Experience classical music like never before with an astonishing performance of masterworks by Ludwig van Beethoven. This remarkable event takes place at Milan's Auditorium Fondazione Cariplo.

The Choral Fantasy Op. 80 is a composition for piano, chorus, and orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was composed in 1808 and had its first performance on December 22 of the same year, along with the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Beethoven himself played the piano during the performance, while Ignaz von Seyfried conducted the orchestra.

Beethoven had the idea of setting the ode "An die Freude" (To Joy) to music as early as his youth in Bonn. However, this project was not realized until many years later with the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony. In this sense, the Choral Fantasy Op. 80 can be seen as a kind of "dress rehearsal" for the Ninth Symphony. Not only does the theme of the final chorus remind us of the "melody of joy," but the text of the Fantasy, written by Christoph Kuffner, also recalls Schiller's themes of universal brotherhood.