Hollow pathos is not his thing. From an artist like Mariss Jansons, Friedrich Schiller’s ode An die Freude has a far deeper significance, which also fully encompasses the doubt and profound hope embodied in this text. And thus, in Jansons’s recording of the Ninth Symphony, the choral finale does not degenerate to a merely superficial jubilation, but rather becomes a delicately balanced, wisely developed drama. On October 27 2007, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks played Beethoven’s Ninth in the presence of the Pope in the Vatican. The recording of this memorable concert is now being released by BR-KLASSIK.