Beethoven’s last two symphonies are vastly different, and the ninth in particular casts a long shadow over the rest of the nineteenth (and twentieth!) century. Following these two masterpieces, it was the brave or foolhardy composer who took up the symphonic challenge; but, as Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner and Mahler (among a multitude of others) demonstrate, many did!

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