RESOUND Beethoven 9

The Beethoven-Haus Bonn is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven's last symphony in May 2024 with two festive concerts. An international conference, the BTHVN WOCHE chamber music festival and an exhibition on exhibition on Leonard Bernstein round off the anniversary programme.

7 May 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. The melody and text of its final chorus, the “Ode to Joy", are not only world-famous, they epitomise classical music and inspired the European anthem. The Beethoven- Haus is celebrating this special anniversary with two festive concerts in the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal and a comprehensive supporting programme. The concerts with outstanding soloists, the Vienna Academy Orchestra, a leading period instrument orchestra under the direction of Martin Haselböck, and the WDR Radio Choir will take centre stage. 
The Beethoven-Haus programme for the anniversary of the Ninth Symphony is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The festive concerts in the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal are also supported by the Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal.

"Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony is a milestone in European music history. To mark its centenary, we are presenting it for the first time in the instrumentation, line-up and programming sequence that Beethoven himself specified. This has not happened for 200 years and promises to be a unique experience in the magnificent concert hall in Wuppertal," says Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

On 7 May 1824, the symphony was premiered in Vienna at the now defunct Theater am Kärntnertor in a music academy conceived by Beethoven himself. This event is generally regarded as a milestone in music history. Researchers have already been able to gather many facts about this concert: for example, the position of the choir in front of the orchestra, the possible instrumentation and the presumed musical text.

"What is remarkable, however, is that Beethoven's last symphony was not the only work on the programme at the time. A total of three late orchestral works by Beethoven were performed, namely parts of the Missa solemnis and the overture "The Consecration of the House" in addition to the Ninth. This programme is now being repeated for the first time and will open up impressive new listening perspectives and insights for us," explains Martin Haselböck, Director of the Wiener Akademie Orchestra. "Aesthetically and in terms of content, the three works, which were composed in immediate succession, show a variety of relationships and suggest that Beethoven wanted to appeal in the Academy to the Holy Alliance as the guarantor of eternal peace, among other things. Exactly 200 years later, this appeal is more relevant than ever," says Birgit Lodes, Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of Vienna.

The Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, one of Europe's outstanding concert halls from the 19th century, has been selected as the performance venue. Acoustically and atmospherically, it provides the perfect setting for two extraordinary two-hour concerts. WDR, which is involved in the concerts with the WDR Rundfunkchor, will record the two concerts and broadcast them on television and radio.

"The reconstruction of the premiere programme of the Ninth opens up completely new perspectives on this great work and is of lasting interest. As a cultural partner of the Beethoven-Haus, we are therefore delighted to be able to co-produce and document this important contribution to the Beethoven anniversary in 2024 and to broadcast it on radio and television," says Matthias Kremin, Head of Programmes at WDR.

The celebratory concerts on the premiere date of the Ninth Symphony will be framed by other events that the Beethoven-Haus has organised to mark the anniversary of this central Beethoven composition. An international academic conference in the Chamber Music Hall of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn from 4 to 6 May, jointly conceived by the Beethoven Archive Research Centre and the University of Vienna, will focus on new findings and research approaches to Beethoven's three late orchestral works. The chamber music festival BTHVN WOCHE 2024, which will take place from 8 to 11 May 2024 under the artistic direction of Daniel Hope, President of the Beethoven-Haus, addresses the failure of the utopias laid out in the Ninth in times of extremism and war. In addition, a special exhibition entitled "Bernstein's Beethoven" is planned at the Beethoven-Haus Museum, which will focus on Leonard Bernstein's lifelong dialogue with Ludwig van Beethoven. It culminated at Christmas 1989 in legendary interpretations of the 9th Symphony, when Bernstein changed the key passages of the famous final chorus to "Ode to Freedom".

Tickets for the festival concerts on 7 and 8 May are available immediately from the Beethoven-Haus shop, Bonngasse 21, 53111 Bonn, resound@beethoven.de, from all known advance booking offices (eventim) throughout Germany or at www.bonnticket.de. The tickets are also valid as tickets for public transport in the Rhine-Ruhr (VRR) and Rhine-Sieg (VRS) transport associations.

Special event and all-inclusive packages for tour groups can be booked directly through Beethoven-Haus Vertriebs-GmbH, tel. 0228 98175-37, geitz@beethoven.de.

Prices and further details on the concerts can be found at www.beethoven.de/bthvn2024, along with information on the other anniversary events. A special brochure for the anniversary concerts can be downloaded there in German and English.

Press tickets: Journalists can already obtain accreditation for the concerts at presse@beethoven.de.

The press kit with artist biographies and press photos can be downloaded here www.beethoven.de/festkonzert.

Press contact:
Michael Forst 
m.forst@europressedienst.com 
Tel. +49 228 91254840 
Tel. +49 172-8584604

Ursula Timmer-Fontani 
Beethoven-Haus Bonn 
timmer-fontani@beethoven.de 
Tel. + 49 (0) 228 98175-16

Download press kit here