Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. One of the best-known works in common practice music, it is regarded by many critics and musicologists as one of Beethoven's greatest works and one of the supreme achievements in the history of western music. In the 2010s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world. The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert) played in public. In 1838, ten years after Schubert's death, Robert Schumann visited Vienna and was shown the manuscript of the symphony at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde by Ferdinand Schubert. He took a copy that Ferdinand had given him back to Leipzig, where the entire work was performed publicly for the first time by Felix Mendelssohn at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 21 March 1839. Schumann celebrated the event in the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" with an ecstatic article in which, in a phrase destined to become famous, he hailed the symphony for its 'heavenly length'. The symphony, however, was found