The Ninth

»This kiss is for all the world!« the choir sings in the closing movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The line from Friedrich Schiller’s »Ode to Joy« connects two things ideally suited to bid farewell to the old year and welcome in the new one: sensuous passion and universal brotherly love. The traditional New Year’s concert of the Symphoniker Hamburg is conducted this time by the Slovenian Marko Letonja, chief conductor of the Strasbourg Philharmonic and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.