Name: Greatest concert in history: Beethoven's 9th Symphony | Rick Beato and Lex Fridman
Uploaded: 2026-03-06T21:36:17.000Z
Duration: 7 min 7 s
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The other, which actually is a legitimate thing you mentioned, is as one of the greatest concerts of all time is Beethoven's world premiere of Ninth Symphony.

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You know, I didn't really know the personal side of Beethoven until I saw this movie called Immortal Beloved.

It's an excellent movie with Gary Oldman.

Just really, it's a masterful celebration of Beethoven in an interesting kind of way through the perspective of a love letter that he's written.

But then I realized, like this early, as many, many couple decades ago now, that he went deaf before he even started writing the ninth Symphony, which is why they consider it to be one of the greatest compositions of all time.

He went deaf, couldn't hear anything before he even started writing it.

And so there's that famous story of him in that world premiere of having to be turned around because he can't hear people applauding.

So he has to be turn around to see that people are actually clapping.

I mean, there's just this whole tragic element, plus the meaning of the symphony that ends in this beautiful ode to joy.

It starts with the chaos and conflict and ends with this celebration of peace and brotherly unity and I guess a call for that, a reaching for that peace.

And there's a tragic element to it, again, connected to history, which is it was post Napoleonic wars and before the American Civil War.

So you're in this middle, this respite from war, calling for peace, not knowing that truly horrific wars are coming.

So you have the American Civil War and you have, of course, the two world wars coming, all of it together.

And the fact that he's conducting deaf and you wrote this whole thing deaf.

I was reading a lot about his process and he just edits and edits and edits and edits.

So the fact that he had to edit in his head is just insane.

I mean, Beethoven was sick all the time too.

I mean, there are a lot of people were sick all the time.

What would motivate you to write music, this beautiful music that you can never actually hear except for in your head, right?

The amount of time it takes to write, to write a 35 minute, 40 minute piece, all the parts you got to hear, all the orchestration in your head, you're editing, you're doing all these things.

Where do you get the motivation when you can't hear the actual finished work?

And people would say, well, he's here in his head, but what kind of enjoyment is it?

There's a thing called the Healing Stadt Testament that he wrote.

It was a letter to his brothers from 1802.

I think they found it in his desk after Beethoven died, and

he felt a sense of shame and humiliation because of his hearing loss.

And he said that he was afflicted with this thing where him, of all people, that someone standing next to him could hear a flute that he could not hear or a shepherd singing in the field, and

Where hearing played such an important part, another person that would had to have had perfect pitch, because you could never do this if you didn't have perfect pitch, which I think all these great composers, for the most part, Brahms didn't, from what I know.

But all the rest of them, for sure, had perfect pitch.

So they could hear these things in their head, and that's how they composed.

What do you think it was like gradually losing your hearing for Beethoven?

I mean, I've heard things where he had to.

And put it on the soundboard of the piano, and

you could feel the vibrations in his skull and things like that.

That he's able to write, like, one of the greatest symphonies ever, while deaf.

We mentioned darkness, but torment that he's going through.

And ultimately Ode to Joy, like, not a cynical thing, a call for the positive.

I. I've devoted many, many hours thinking about that.

Because he was a supporter of Napoleon, because Napoleon was supposed to represent the French Revolution.

This hopeful future of no more kings, no more monarchs, no more authoritarian regimes.

And Napoleon ended up becoming essentially king.

And Beethoven sort of famously was critical of that.

Nevertheless, I think, maintained a fascination with Napoleon throughout his life, but

sort of a kind of more sophisticated, complex view of human nature and human civilization.

So becoming more cynical, like, seeing more clearly that the world disappoints you, the dreams get shattered, and

through that is able to still do this, call for the hopeful future.

All right, so, okay, so Beethoven, one of the greats, for sure.

I know how to play the first movement of Moonlight Sonata, but

I always avoided the third movement because I was like, I'll never be good enough.

One of these days, maybe, you know, it'd be great if Tom Waits writes me an email that says, I only talk to people that can play the third movie.

Or whatever you do, you have to have a prince and rescue the princess.