The premiere of the Fantasy for Piano, Soloists and Mixed Choir, in C minor, Op. 80, took place in Vienna on December, 22nd, 1808.
There are many accounts of the failure of its first performance. It is presented as an ‘Improvisation for piano with gradual entrance of the orchestra and finally a choral part and finale’. The same programme also included the premieres of Symphonies Nos 5 and 6, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4, an aria, two excerpts from the ‘Mass in C major’ (written for Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy II in 1807) and a solo improvisation. The concert lasted four hours. Beethoven conducted. According to his piano student Ferdinand Ries, none of the people in the boxes near the stage ever thought of leaving before the end of the concert, although the Fantasia in particular had to be interrupted by a mistake and then continued.
Perhaps the title puzzled the audience too – until then “Fantasia” had been associated with a solo piano piece. And it is just such a solo movement that the composer includes in the work. The Choral Fantasy begins with a long passage for solo piano, which Beethoven himself improvised at the concert premiere. The orchestra then joins in, creating a concerto-like effect. The chorus and soloists join in for the grand finale.
Many scholars have pointed out a similarity between the Choral Fantasy and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which premiered in 1824. The composer himself described the choral finale of the Symphony No. 9 in an 1824 letter as being created in the same way as his Choral Fantasy, but on a grander scale.
There are also similarities between the main musical themes of the two works and in the messages of the texts. In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven uses Friedrich Schiller’s poem praising brotherhood and equality, shared joy. The text of the Choral Fantasy is similar, proclaiming in its concluding words love and the power of union.
There is no unanimous opinion about the author of the text, written shortly before the concert. According to Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny, it was the poet Christoph Kuffner, but later studies point to Friedrich Treitschke (one of the librettists of his opera Fidelio).