Choral Fantasy (Beethoven) a rather troubled one; according to the composer's secretary, Anton Schindler, it "simply fell apart," a result most likely attributable to insufficient rehearsal time. Because of a mistake in the execution of the piece, it was stopped half way through and restarted. In Ignaz von Seyfried's words: The work includes a sequence of variations on a theme that is widely felt to be an early version of a far better known variation theme, namely the one to which Beethoven set the words of Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" in his Ninth Symphony. The two themes are compared below. \new Score
Beethoven Lives Upstairs implores Christoph to give him a chance. Kurt mentions that Beethoven is working on his Ninth Symphony, which Christoph hopes will be his last. When Christoph's mother enters Beethoven's room, Beethoven is writing music on the shutters, presumably having run out of paper. Seeing her shock, he suggests she could sell the shutters as collectors items. He asks her about her musical background, and she plays "Für Elise" for him, beginning to see his softer side. While working with musicians on the Ninth Symphony in his room, Beethoven needs to write down changes, but all the pens have been destroyed