VATICAN - “True joy lies in the freedom that only God can give” Pope Benedict XVI remarks at the end of a Concert given in his honour by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - In the afternoon 27 October in the Paul VI in the Vatican, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir gave a concert in honour of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. After listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony the Pope expressed his thanks to those who helped to organise the concert, and dwelt briefly on the origin of this particular composition.
“After years of self-isolation and a withdrawn life - the Pope said in his address -, now totally deaf, in 1824 the composer astonishes the public with a composition which breaks with the traditional form of symphony and, in cooperation of orchestra, choir soloists, and rises to a marvellous finale of optimism and joy…. an overwhelming sentiment of joy transformed here into music is not something light or superficial: it is a sentiment conquered with fatigue, overcoming the inner void of a man pushed into isolation by deafness … however silent solitude had taught Beethoven a new way of listening which went much further than the simple capacity of experiencing which are read or written in the imagination notes. There comes to mind, in this context, a mysterious expression of the Prophet Isaiah, when he said speaking of the triumph of the truth and law: "On that day the deaf will hear the words in a book [that is words only written]; freed from darkness and shadows, the eyes of the blind will see " (cfr 29, 18-24). This is a reference to a capacity of perception given to those who obtain from God the grace of an inward and exterior freedom”.
Benedict XVI then recalled that on the occasion "fall of the Wall", in 1989, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra performed the same symphony changing the words "Ode to Joy" in "Freedom, a beautiful spark of God", and he underlined: “they expressed more than the simply sentiment of the historical moment: true joy lies in that freedom that only God can give. At times precisely through periods of emptiness and inward isolation, He enables us to "hear" la is silent presence not only "above the starry sky", but in the depths of our soul, where burns the spark of God's love which can free us to be what we truly are.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 29/10/2007; righe 26, parole 391)