 FACT: The film depicts Beethoven conducting the premier of his Ninth  Symphony with Annas help and at the end her turning him around at  the podium to see the thunderous applause. In reality, Michael  Umlauf conducted and although Beethoven was on stage keeping tempo,  the orchestra had been told to ignore him. At the end of the  performance it was one of the soloists, Caroline Unger, who turned  him around to see the enthusiastic applause of the audience.