Beethoven completed his Symphony No. 9 in 1824. The symphony, formally known as Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, was composed chiefly between 1822 and 1824, after years of preliminary ideas and sketches.
Its first performance took place in Vienna on 7 May 1824. Beethoven was already profoundly deaf by then, yet he supervised the premiere. The work expanded the traditional symphonic format by adding vocal soloists and chorus in its fourth movement, setting words adapted from Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy.”
The year 1824 can be confused with 1827, the year Beethoven died, or with 1823 and 1825, which fall close to the symphony’s final stages and early reception. The Ninth was not simply finished at its premiere date: the autograph score had been completed earlier in 1824, before the Vienna performance. Its final movement later became the musical basis of the European Anthem.