The anthem of European Unity. A few days before the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Vienna’s dog-walkers realized the world would never be the same again. As their dogs sniffed a concert placard, the owners learned of a “grand” new symphony with “solo and chorus voices” in the finale—a radical departure from the tradition of symphonies for orchestra alone. The announcement that “Herr Ludwig van Beethoven will himself participate in the direction” was not reassuring, […]