“A beautiful way to perform one of the world’s great musical treasures.” The video above, and the accompanying 58-character sentence, make up the last tweet from Oliver Sacks, the influential neurologist who passed away earlier today. The clip (originally highlighted on our site back in 2012) features 100 musicians and singers from the Orchestra Simfonica del Valles, Amics de l’Opera de Sabadell, Coral Belles Arts, and Cor Lieder Camera performing what’s now the anthem of the European Union — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Symphony No. 9. It’s a pretty stirring performance, and certainly a worthwhile way to punctuate a Twitter stream. (Side note: Dr. Sacks started following our Twitter stream several years ago, and we still consider it a great honor, a high point in OC history.)
You can read Mr. Sacks’ obituary here, and an appraisal of his intellectual contributions here.
h/t @miafarrow
If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here.
If you would like to support the mission of Open Culture, consider making a donation to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal, Patreon, Venmo (@openculture) and Crypto. Thanks!
Related Content:
This is What Oliver Sacks Learned on LSD and Amphetamines
30 Renowned Writers Speaking About God: From Isaac Asimov to Oliver Sacsks & Margaret Atwood
Ollie, thanks for everything. My world was a better place because of you.
Jet
Beautiful music creative and amazing what a great way to start my day!
Wonderful!
Just spent 2 wks I Spain & witnessed these AWESOME performances. NEVER TO FORGET – EVER!!!???
Sitting in my living room , tears flowing down my cheeks…..so magnificent, so beautiful,…..thanks to all who participated…..Bob Jones….
Awesome performance! The human spirit is limitless!
This makes me proud to be a part of the human race and I’m so delighted and thankful God created me to be here at this time in this place.
Tnx
Love this, and love Spain.
My idea of heavan! More than beautiful!
the endless crescendo; just beautiful. It evoked tears of joy to see the childrens’ responses. And who would have known that Freude means Joy in German, Were Sigmon’s patients disappointed about some sort of misrepresentation?
That was beautiful, it gave me Goosebumps and made me smile. Ole to joy is my moms favorite song and I love it as well
I took a break while reading Dr. Sacks’ book “An Anthropologist From Mars” and found this on Facebook. :)
I do not how many times I have watched and listen to this concert, but it gives me goosebumps and makes me smile every time I listen to it and watch the audience respond to the music. Thank you for sharing this great piece of music!!
Moi je suis Bacchus
qui pressure
pour les hommes
le nectar délicieux
Beethoven
Thank you….Thank you…Thank you