Freude, schöner Götterfunken... “Joy, the most beautiful of God’s sparks.” Schiller’s Ode to Joy, set by Beethoven at the blazing summit of his Ninth Symphony, crowns one of the most gripping emotional journeys in all music. Every performance of the Ninth is a major occasion, and with Delyana Lazarova conducting the BBC SSO, four great soloists and the massed voices of the Hallé Choir from Manchester-where Lazarova had her professional breakthrough-this will be a beacon of light in a Scottish December. There’s a bonus item too, an explosive homage to Beethoven from one of the world’s most exciting-and unpredictable-composers of the 21st century, Unsuk Chin.