Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, the work that contains the celebrated Ode to Joy, has been voted the number one favourite in this year's ABC Classic listener countdown. The poll drew an enormous response, with more than 187,000 votes submitted by music lovers. Alongside the great symphonic and concert works, the countdown ranged widely across the repertoire, taking in scores from 17 films, six ballets, nine operas and just a single musical. The breadth of the field underlined how far the affection for classical music now reaches beyond the concert hall.
The enduring pull of the Ninth Symphony goes well beyond its famous finale. The work is built in four movements, yet most listeners know only the last of them. Across the first three movements Beethoven sets up an immense, almost violent sense of conflict, creating a huge contrast with what follows. In the finale he turns to the words of Schiller's Ode to Joy, a text that speaks of a common humanity, and the music he wrote for it has come to feel like a reminder of what it is to be human and to be in it together. It is, above all, an optimistic piece, which may help explain its place at the very top.
The contest at the summit was remarkably close. Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, his Fifth Piano Concerto, finished in second place, separated from the Ninth Symphony by only around 450 votes. The gap between second and third was tighter still, making the upper reaches of the countdown one of the most closely fought in recent memory. Such fine margins suggested how passionately listeners felt about their personal favourites.
In third place came Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, a result that carried an intriguing demographic twist. The oldest listeners tended to vote for the Emperor Concerto, while those aged around 45 and under leaned towards Holst. Part of that appeal lies in Holst's influence on later music, as his writing served as an inspiration for the film scores of John Williams, connecting an early twentieth century suite to the sound of modern cinema.
The countdown also offered a window onto contemporary composition, with 18 living composers featuring in this year's list. The highest placed among them was the British composer Karl Jenkins, who reached number six with The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. Written for choir and orchestra, the work was described as a modern classic that, much like the Ode to Joy, reaches people deeply, with its timpani and full choir music that seems to speak straight to the heart.
Australian composers were also well represented, with ten of them appearing across the countdown. The highest placed Australian, and the highest placed woman composer, was Elena Kats-Chernin, recognised for her Eliza Aria from the Wild Swans suite, a piece drawn from a ballet she wrote some years ago. The work travelled far beyond the concert stage and reached a global audience after it was used as the jingle for a bank in the United Kingdom, while remaining a beloved favourite among local listeners.
Taken together, the results offered a picture of where the appetite for classical music sits today. The strong presence of living composers, combined with the volume of music drawn from the screen, pointed to a repertoire that is anything but frozen in the past. From a Beethoven symphony first heard two centuries ago to recent works for choir and ballet, the countdown reflected an audience that continues to find new meaning in old and new music alike.