‘Ode to Joy’ wasn’t written by Beethoven. It was composed by a German historian called Friedrich Schiller, but, like so many other great and enduring works of art, it was soon covered by someone famous and thus made famous, in this case forever. In these modern times of mounting despair, many of us need some momentary reprieve. Music can do that, if only for a few minutes. But maybe those few minutes will be enough to get you through the day; and if you had to listen to all the iterations of ‘Ode to Joy’ then (a) there would be enough to carry you happily through your life, and (b) that would not be such a bad thing. To help you along, here are my favourite three: