BTHVN WOCHE on the subject of humanism

The Beethoven-Haus Chamber Music Festival begins on 8 May. Remaining tickets are still available for the music theatre evenings on 9 and 10 May. Finale on 11 May with a rediscovery

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Ninth Symphony, Daniel Hope, President of the Beethoven-Haus and Artistic Director of the BTHVN WOCHE, explores the question of what remains of Beethoven's idea of human and fraternal coexistence in a present characterised by crises and threats.

Hope explores his theme of "humanism" in five concerts. He can always be experienced as a violinist himself, together with his musician friends Adrien La Marca (viola), Josephine Knight (violoncello), Stéphane Logerot (double bass) and Jacques Ammon (piano). Baritone legend Thomas Hampson and chansonnier Horst Maria Merz and other musicians will join them for two music theatre pieces at the Junges Theater Bonn. The anniversary edition of the BTHVN WOCHE was made possible by the generous support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

The two music theatre pieces form the centrepiece of the festival. The first evening (9 May, 7 pm), written by Daniel Hope, unfolds the chronicle of a year that was to change many things. Under the motto "Berlin 1938 - The fateful year", two broadcasters and presenters, embodied by Thomas Hampson and Horst Maria Merz, recall the time before the Second World War, when freedoms dwindled and dark shadows loomed. The film tells the stories of musicians and writers who fought back. Their stories are embedded in music by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler and Cole Porter, but also in classical works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.  

The second evening (10 May, 7 pm) "Los Angeles 1943 - Escape to Paradise", for which Thomas Hampson wrote the screenplay, is dedicated to the stories of artists who were disenfranchised and discriminated against during the Nazi era and fled to America. Compositions by Irving Berlin, Arnold Schönberg, Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington are interwoven with thoughts by Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer to create a multi-faceted, haunting radio play.

Is it possible to take a stand with music and express a critical attitude towards the threats to our free and democratic basic order as a musician? Daniel Hope will discuss this central question raised by BTHVN WOCHE 2024 in a panel discussion with Thomas Hampson on 11 May at 11 a.m. in the Chamber Music Hall.  

The final work to be performed at the closing concert on 11 May at 7 pm will be the piano quartet by the unjustly largely forgotten Jewish composer Friedrich Gernsheim. Gernsheim's music was banned by the National Socialists and has hardly been heard since.

His composition will be performed on the last evening of the festival alongside a piano quintet by Beethoven's contemporary Johann Nepomuk Hummel and a piano quartet by Beethoven himself (WoO 36 No. 3).

There are still tickets left for the concerts in the Chamber Music Hall at the box office. Tickets for the music theatre performances in the Junges Theater and the panel discussion are currently still available in the Beethoven-Haus shop, at www.bonnticket.de and at the usual eventim advance booking offices.

The BTHVN WOCHE programme is available at https://www.beethoven.de/woche. Artist photos can be downloaded from the artists' websites.

BTHVN WOCHE 2024
Humanism
Chamber music festival
8 to 11 May 2024
Artistic director: Daniel Hope

Press documents:
BTHVN WOCHE 2024

Press contact:
Michael Forst
m.forst@europressedienst.com
Tel. +49 (0) 228 91254840 
Phone +49 (0) 172 8584604

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

BTHVN2024 - 200 years of the Ninth Symphony 
To mark the 200th anniversary of the Ninth Symphony, the Beethoven-Haus has devised an extensive programme of events that looks at the anniversary of this important composition from various perspectives. On 7 and 8 May 2024, two celebratory concerts with a reconstruction of the premiere programme from 1824 will take place in the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal. The media partner is WDR, which will record the concerts for TV and radio, stream them live on the internet and broadcast them on the radio. Prior to this, an international academic conference will take place in the Chamber Music Hall from 4 to 6 May. The special exhibition "Bernstein's Beethoven - Ode to Freedom", dedicated to the great American conductor Leonard Bernstein, will open on 2 May. The anniversary programme of the Beethoven-Haus was made possible by funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.