Beethoven's final three symphonies—Nos 7 & 8 composed as a pair in 1812, the monumental No 9 following twelve years later and concluding with the famous 'Ode to Joy'. Beethoven's original audience was decidedly ambivalent regarding his use of human voices in what is today regarded as a masterpiece; modern listeners can experience something of their consternation in the coupling of Gerald Barry's defiant The Eternal Recurrence.