Press Release
Spark Divine (Götterfunken)
(
Beethovenfest Bonn 2014: 6 September - 3 October
Highlights include:
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performs the complete cycle of
Beethoven’s symphonies
• Borodin Quartet completes its
i three-year Beethoven String Quartet
uartet cycle
• Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Leif Ove Andsnes present The Beethoven Journey
• London Symphony Orchestra opens
open the festival with John Eliot Gardiner and
cellist Gautier Capuçon
• Leonidas Kavakos performs a complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas
• A number of prestigious visiting orchestras:
orchestras Munich Philharmonic Orchestra,
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,
Orchestra Deutsche
utsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and
Norwegian Artic Philharmonic Orchestra
• Top soloists in 2014 include: Arcadi Volodos, Hugh Masekela, Thomas Zehetmair,
Isabelle Faust, Toby Spence, Waltraud Meier,
Meier Jan Lisiecki and Christian Lindberg
• New music includes the premiere of Philip Maintz’ new work for piano and
ensemble and Helmut Oehring’s homage to the late work of Beethoven and Goya
both in collaboration with the Bundeskunsthalle
• Pianist Burkhard Kehring’s
Kehring ‘Divan of Song’ exploring the relations between
Western Europe
ope and the Middle and Far East in romantic repertoire
• Two performances of Jakob Peters-Messer’s
Peters
production of Fidelio at Opernhaus
Bonn
• Ensemble Sarband presents
present ‘Passio – Compassio’ on the anniversary of 9/11
focusing on music from the Christian and Muslim faiths
• The Kuss Quartet is joined by Bennewitz Quartet, Heath Quartet and Quatuor
Zaide for a String Quartet Weekend
• Young Beethovenfest 2014’s
2014 Student Managers organise a concert with classical
techno producers, the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble
Every year in the autumn for a month Beethoven’s native city off Bonn celebrates
Beethovenfest,, welcoming top international orchestras, well-known
well known soloists, major ensembles
and promising young performers. These and many other musicians regularly return to Bonn to
perform thought-provoking
provoking programmes compiled specifically for the festival which highlight
both Beethoven’s output alongside new works echoing what Beethoven did in his era.
In 2014 Beethovenfest Bonn looks at the relationship between a composition and its audience,
taking as its theme the ‘spark divine (Götterfunken)’.
(
This year the festival also explores the
th
themes of Cult Music
usic and the 200 anniversary of the Vienna Congress in 1814, which began
the reorganisation of Europe.
Nike Wagner
The 2014 programme was mostly programmed by Ilona Schmiel who left the festival at the end
of 2013 after ten years as its artistic director.
direct Her successor Nike Wagner has added two key
events: each year the festival will open with an address by Nike Wagner, a scholar and writer on
cultural matters, who will present her ideas on festivals in general and on this year’s programme
in particular. Save the World is a collaboration between the Theater Bonn and the
Beethovenfest Bonn and examines the question ‘Can the world be saved?’ Together with artists
representing various areas of art, international researchers are staging a sensory event
consisting of art, music and science.
Four Beethoven cycles
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons performs the
complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies. This will be the fourth time that Beethovenfest Bonn
has presented the composer’s complete symphony cycle since the festival restarted in 1999.
They are performed chronologically across four concerts (7, 8, 9 & 10 September).
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra presents ‘The Beethoven Journey’ with a cycle of
Beethoven’s Piano Concertos and the Choral Fantasy performed and directed by pianist Leif
Ove Andsnes (25, 27 & 28 September). In the final year of its residency, the Borodin Quartet
completes its three-year cycle of twelve concerts which began in 2012.
including all 16 of Beethoven’s string quartets, set alongside key Russian string quartets. The
final four concerts take place on 8, 9, 11 & 14 September. Renowned violinist Leonidas
Kavakos presents a complete cycle of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas across three concerts (10,
12 & 13 September) accompanied by pianist Enrico Pace combined each evening with a
prelude by Lera Auerbach.
Orchestras and Conductors
After closing the festival in 2013, the London Symphony Orchestra returns to open the 2014
festival conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and performing with French cellist Gautier
Capuçon (6 September).The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is Orchestra in
Residence for this year’s festival at the Beethovenhalle performing the complete cycle of
Beethoven’s symphonies (7-10 September). Another Orchestra in Residence, the Mahler
Chamber Orchestra, presents The Beethoven Journey with Leif Ove Andsnes (25, 27 & 28
September). The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra gives two concerts: with violinist
Isabelle Faust (17 September) and performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 (18 September),
directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Lorin Maazel conducts the Munich Philharmonic
Orchestra for Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 ‘The New World’ (20 September) and the Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which opened the festival in 2013, returns to close it
conducted by Paavo Järvi with pianist Arcadi Volodos (3 October). The Norwegian Artic
Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by Swedish trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg
who directs and performs his own music (2 October). Other orchestras include the Beethoven
Orchestra Bonn conducted by Stefan Blunier performing music from R. Strauss in his 150th
anniversary year (19 September) and the Kölner Kammerorchester with violinist Alexander
Janiczek (13 September). Youth orchestras performing this year include Bilkent Youth
Symphony Orchestra (23 September) and Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic Orchestra with
Kristjan Järvi (26 September).
Soloists
Violinist Thomas Zehetmair performs works by Paganini (16 September). South-African jazz
icon and cult figure Hugh Masekela visits the festival as part of ‘The 75 Years Celebration Tour
2014’ with pianist Larry Willis (25 September). Rising star Jan Lisiecki returns to
Beethovenfest performing with the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic (26 September) having first
performed at the festival when he was sixteen. Grammy Award-winning mezzo soprano and
renowned Wagner interpreter Waltraud Meier makes her Beethovenfest debut this year with
songs by Mahler and Wagner (27 September). Prestigious piano soloists visiting include
veteran and official Czech state pianist Josef Bulva (21 September), Romanian pianist Herbert
Schuch (23 September) and Sebastian Knauer (21, 28 & 30 September). Other soloists
include soprano Annette Dasch, alto Lioba Braun, tenor Toby Spence and bass Vuyani
Mlinde performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra; Arcadi Volodos; Isabelle Faust; Leif Ove Andsnes; Leonidas Kavakos and
Christian Lindberg.
Young Beethovenfest and Youth Orchestras
Young Beethovenfest is a unique scheme that offers students at schools in Bonn the
opportunity to experience an international music festival first hand. Under the guidance of the
regular employees of the Beethovenfest Bonn, the students organise a concert as part of the
main programme. This year’s Student Manager Project concert is with the Brandt Brauer
Frick Ensemble (13 September) who have made a name for themselves producing techno
without the technology, using classical instruments in preference to synthesizers and
computers. Before the concert in September the students will hold a press conference,
negotiate budgets, find sponsors, commission agencies and technical services to design flyers
and its own website www.schuelermanager-beethovenfest.de. The students will also use social
media platforms to publicise the project and concert; upload short films about their work on
YouTube; send tweets and maintain a dedicated Facebook page for Young Beethovenfest.
2014’s Orchestra Campus, staged annually by Deutsche Welle and the Beethovenfest Bonn
since 2001, continues its association with Turkey welcoming the Bilkent Youth Symphony
Orchestra and conductor Işin Metin to spend a week in Beethoven’s home city of Bonn. They
perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 sung in Turkish as well as a new piece from Turkish
composer Tolga Yayalar commissioned by Deutsche Welle (23 September).
New Music
New music at this year’s festival comes from the festival’s collaboration with the
Bundeskunsthalle which presents two concerts of contemporary music with the vision of art
and music colliding. The youth ensemble of Studio musikFabrik, directed by Peter Veale,
performs a new commission from young German composer Philip Maintz for piano and
ensemble written in the style of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (14 September). The second
concert presents a new work from German composer Helmut Oehring: GOYA III, VEIA la
mano, pero como alelado, paying homage to the late works of both Beethoven, in particular his
String Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor, and the Spanish painter Goya. This is performed by
Ensemble Resonanz on 22 September. Other new commissions include Oliver Schneller’s
new work Introjections for string quartet commissioned by NDR and Beethovenfest Bonn
performed by the Kuss Quartet (19 September) and a new piece by Czech composer
Slavomír Hořínkas, Song of Immigrants for the Bennewitz Quartet (20 September). Christian
Lindberg performs his own Kundraan and the Artic Light for trombone and orchestra with the
newly formed Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra (2 October) and Param Vir brings his
own music based on Bengali texts to perform as part of ‘Divan of Song’ (14 September).
Bilkent Youth Symphony Orchestra performs a new piece by Turkish composer Tolga
Yayalar commissioned by Deutsche Welle.
Divan of Song
‘Divan of Song’ is curated and directed by pianist Burkhard Kehring and explores the relations
between Western Europe and the Middle and Far East in the romantic repertoire of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries across three themed concerts. The first focuses on Persia
with songs from by Schubert, Schumann and Schoeck performed by soprano Christiane Karg
and bass Robert Holl, alongside texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the Persian poet
Hafiz, recited in the Persian language (7 September). The second concert focuses on India with
soprano Christiane Iven (14 September), which includes a new song cycle based on the texts
of Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore by composer Param Vir, commissioned by
Beethovenfest Bonn. Vir performed at the Beethoven-Haus in 1971 and 43 years later he
returns with his own music. The evening will also include music from Messiaen, a recitation of
songs from Tagore’s Gitanjali in Bengali and traditional Indian compositions on the tabla, an
Indian percussion instrument. The final concert welcomes Korean singing star Kwangchul
Youn (bass) who performs a programme of new works from two young Korean composers,
Hannah-Hanbiel Choi and Myung-Sun Lee alongside Schubert’s Die Winterreise (2 October).
Cult Music
In 2014 Beethovenfest celebrates cult music; iconic and ritualistic music adored by the public,
and often the modern replacement for previously religious aspects of music, as founded by
Beethoven and the incipient romantic era. Ensemble Sarband present ‘Passio – Compassio’, a
musical search for mindfulness in the footsteps of J.S. Bach and the early Christian and Islamic
mysticism on the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, curated and directed by Vladimir Ivanoff with
accompanying dancers. Finnish ensemble Rajaton fuse pop with the traditional, performing
acapella arrangements of cult pop songs by Madonna, Abba, Queen and Sting in a style
‘without borders’ (20 September). Similarly, leading German vocal group Singer Pur blend pop
songs with spiritual music in unique arrangements of the Christian "Ordinary" and secular songs
by Adrian Willaert, Arvo Pärt and Sting (21 September). Finally, Canadian Brass makes a
welcome appearance at the festival for ‘From American Tradition to Penny Lane’,
encompassing cult works from Gershwin and the Beatles to Bach, Brahms and Beethoven (26
September).
1814 – The Vienna Congress and the Reorganisation of Europe
A second prominent theme running through 2014’s festival is the year of 1814. Both the
beginning of the Congress of Vienna and the world premiere of the final version of Fidelio took
place in this year. Both events can be regarded as long-term consequences of the French
Revolution and, with Beethoven's opera seen as a political piece on the struggle for liberty and
justice in contemporary Europe, both are thought to have played a role in the reorganisation of
Europe.
Over the third weekend of the festival, Beethovenfest hosts a String Quartet Weekend, where
three young ensembles work together with the renowned Kuss Quartet in six different
programmes including a concert with discussion for schools, a lecture recital, a teatime concert
and three evening concerts (19, 20 & 21 September). The other quartets featured in this project
are the Bennewitz Quartet, the Heath Quartet and Quatuor Zaide. Thematically the project
will focus on three dates: 1814, 1914 and 2014, three landmarks between which the string
quartet has crucially changed as well as being key moments in European history. Music
featured includes Schubert, Suk, Schöenberg, Janáček, Beethoven, Bartok and Vaughan
Williams, alongside two new commissions: Introjections by German composer Oliver Schneller
commissioned by NDR and the Beethoven Festival Bonn and Songs of Immigrants by Czech
composer Slavomír Hořínkas inspired by the immigrant boat disaster of 2013.
Marking the anniversary of Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, premiered in its final version in
Vienna on 23 April 1814, Opernhaus Bonn presents Jakob Peters-Messer’s production of
Fidelio with Beethoven Orchester Bonn for two performances (28 September & 3 October).
The cast includes Christian Juslin as Florestan with Giorgos Kanaris, Mark Morouse, Priit
Volmer, Nikola Hillebrand and Tamás Tarjányi. Hendrik Vestmann conducts.
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Congress of Vienna the Vienna Academy
performs Beethoven’s political Incidental Music on Goethe's tragedy ‘Egmont’ with Wellington's
Victory or the Battle of Vittoria and Symphony No. 8, which also premiered in 1814 (1 October).
Martin Haselböck conducts, joined by soprano Kirsten Blaise and with recitation from August
Zirner.
Tickets
Tickets available online at www.beethovenfest.de.
Notes to Editors
• 60 events in the main programme at 21 venues across the city.
• Extensive accompanying programme with a further 60 events including exhibitions,
lectures, readings, Post Tower Lounge concerts, workshops, films and Public Viewing.
• More than 2000 artists will contribute to the Beethovenfest Bonn.
• Two thirds of the main programme concerts will be broadcast by the media partners:
o regional broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk
o national radio stations Deutschlandfunk / Deutschlandradio Kultur
o
Deutsche Welle will be broadcasting a number of concerts worldwide, and
making these and others available on podcast.
For further press information please contact:
Rebecca Driver Media Relations
+44 (0)20 7247 1894 | [email protected] | [email protected]