Overjoyed
Who could have guessed that Ludwig van Beethoven had so much work to do finding a place to perform his iconic Ninth Symphony? Not only did the famously irascible composer — who was completely deaf by the time of the premiere — have to write the work, gather together an orchestra, and copy out the score for the instruments, he also had to scour 1824 Vienna to locate a suitable concert hall. That’s just one example of the kind of intimate historical detail served up in a lecture this week (Nov. 9) by Thomas Kelly, Harvard’s Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, who addressed a crowd at the Harvard Allston Education Portal. Punching the air to a booming drumbeat, mouthing along to the work’s famed “Ode to Joy” choral finale, or taking on the role of conductor, directing the phantom orchestra before him, Kelly was in his element while playing snippets of the...