Since its composition in 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has emerged as one of the greatest works of Western music. It has inspired immense enthusiasm while occasionally carving out an unusual political career for itself. How could Friedrich Schiller’s utopian statement that "All men become brothers" have become the object of so many contradictory and irreconcilable ideologies? The film by Pierre-Henry Salfati explains the reception history of "Ode to Joy", a fable about the moral values of Western art. An exciting insight into music history, accompanied by concert extracts from Kurt Masur, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Simon Rattle, Otto Klemperer and Leonard Bernstein