Visit and benefit concert by Anne-Sophie Mutter in the redesigned Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Anne-Sophie Mutter, honorary member of the Beethoven-Haus, visited the redesigned exhibition rooms nominated as "European Museum of the Year 2022" for the first time. With her benefit concert for the sponsors of the museum's redesign, which began in 2016 and cost more than 3.5 million euros, the exceptional artist brought the biggest project of the Beethoven anniversary to a brilliant close.

In 2017, star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, honorary member of the Beethoven-Haus Association and member of the board of trustees of the Beethoven-Haus Foundation, had already pledged her support in the form of a benefit concert on Beethoven's birthday when the plans for the redesign of the permanent exhibition in Beethoven's birthplace were presented to her. The benefit concert was originally planned for 16 December 2020, but due to the pandemic it has now been delayed by one year. 

Before her performance in the Chamber Music Hall, Anne-Sophie Mutter gained a personal impression of the permanent exhibition, which will be ceremoniously opened on 16 December 2019 to mark the start of the national Beethoven anniversary. The project, which began in 2017 and will be completed in December 2021, is considered a central and the most financially costly single project of the Beethoven anniversary. The financing of the total costs of 3.523 million euros was largely made possible by grants from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media based on a resolution of the German Bundestag, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Landschaftsverband Rheinland. 

Anne-Sophie Mutter, together with Ye-Eun Choi, violin, Vladimir Babeshko, viola, and Daniel Müller-Schott, violoncello, brought this project to a brilliant conclusion with her benefit concert for the sponsors of the museum redesign. In mid-2017, as part of its fundraising, the Beethoven House had offered the prospect of participation in the benefit concert to all donors who committed to the museum's redesign by the end of 2017. As a result of this appeal, private donations and contributions amounting to EUR 475,410 were collected within the first six months alone, as the Chairman of the Board, Michael Kranz, gratefully mentioned in his welcome to the concert. In the context of Anne-Sophie Mutter's benefit concert, the Beethoven House received another private endowment on Beethoven's 251st baptismal anniversary as well as donations of more than EUR 50k. 

In addition to string quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, the benefit concert also featured a Bonn premiere with "Gran Cadenza" by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin (*1961), who lives in Germany. Gran Cadenza, commissioned by Anne-Sophie Mutter, is a virtuoso duo for two violins that was premiered in Regensburg on 21 October 2021 at the beginning of an extensive European tour with "Mutter's Virtuosi".

"We are very grateful to Anne-Sophie Mutter for her renewed commitment to the Beethoven House with a benefit concert. Without her promise and your commitment, we would not have been able to manage our high own contribution to the redesign. We are very happy about the long-standing close and friendly relationship that has connected us with this impressive artist since 1995," says Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus.

"I am very pleased that we were able to contribute to the museum in Beethoven's birthplace being able to present itself with a new and contemporary permanent exhibition for the Beethoven anniversary. I would like to thank all donors and sponsors very much for their support! I would be delighted if, even after the completion of this major project, many Beethoven friends would continue to get involved with the Beethoven-Haus and support it in its further important tasks," says Anne-Sophie Mutter.

In the past, the violinist had repeatedly been involved with benefit concerts for the Beethoven-Haus. In 1995, she and her piano accompanist Lambert Orkis contributed to the then necessary restoration of the birthplace in a concert in the Beethovenhalle. In 2008 she again gave a benefit concert with Lambert Orkis in aid of the acquisition of the Diabelli Variations for the Beethoven House. In December 1997 she played the final concert of her cycle of Beethoven's violin sonatas with Lambert Orkis in the Chamber Music Hall. In 2005 she performed there again as a chamber musician, with Sir André Previn on piano and Daniel Müller-Schott, violoncello. These two chamber concerts were also benefit concerts for the Beethoven-Haus and contributed to the acquisition of important items from the collection.

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