BTHVN2024 - 200 years of Beethoven's Ninth

Two hundred years ago, Beethoven wrote European music history with the premiere of his last completed symphony. The Beethoven-Haus Bonn is dedicating an extensive programme to the anniversary of the "Ninth" from 2 to 11 May, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

On 7 May 1824, the Ninth was performed for the first time in Vienna together with three movements from the Missa solemnis and the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses" in an academy, as large concerts were called at the time. It is one of the most frequently performed and best-known symphonies and the work in European music history that has been most politically appropriated. As a European anthem, the melody based on Schiller's poem "To Joy" in the final movement of the Ninth has taken on a special significance. "Anyone celebrating the Ninth is celebrating classical music itself and the idea of peaceful coexistence," explains Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus. "However, the anniversary also calls for an examination of the eventful history of its political instrumentalisation and the question of the relevance of utopian music in the present."

The focus of the anniversary events at the Beethoven-Haus, which are funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, will be two celebratory concerts on 7 and 8 May 2024 in the special ambience of the Historische Stadthalle in Wuppertal. The concerts will reconstruct the world premiere programme - with outstanding soloists, the Wiener Akademie Orchestra, one of the leading original sound orchestras, and the WDR Rundfunkchor under the direction of Martin Haselböck. "To mark its centenary, we are presenting the Ninth for the first time again in the sound of 1824 and in the probable instrumentation, line-up and programmatic constellation that Beethoven himself specified. This promises to be a unique experience," says a delighted Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

The celebratory concerts will be framed by further events on the reception and relevance of the Ninth. The special exhibition "Bernstein's Beethoven - Ode to Freedom" will be on display at the museum from 3 May to 19 August. With around 100 objects, it conveys the American pianist, conductor, author and producer's lifelong engagement with Beethoven. This culminated at Christmas 1989, shortly before Leonard Bernstein's death, in the Berlin performances of the Ninth, which became legendary as an "Ode to Freedom" in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The exhibition provides access to Beethoven's work in general and to the Ninth in particular via one of the most influential musicians and music mediators of the 20th century.

On 3 May, a European film premiere will take place in the chamber music hall of the Beethoven-Haus: In cooperation with ZDF and ARTE, among others, the Beethoven-Haus will be showing the documentary film "Beethoven's Nine - Ode to Humanity", which was made to mark the anniversary, before its regular broadcast. The deeply personal film is about Beethoven's hope for a better world, which he composed into his Ninth Symphony, and explores the question of how far we have come in terms of this hope in the two hundred years since it was written.

This will be followed by an international academic conference from 4 to 6 May, conceived by the Beethoven Archive Research Centre and Birgit Lodes, Institute of Musicology at the University of Vienna. The conference will bring together over 30 international experts and researchers at the Beethoven-Haus. They will take an in-depth look at the cultural-historical background and reception history of the three works in the world premiere programme.

The anniversary week will conclude with the chamber music festival BTHVN WOCHE 2024 from 8 to 11 May under the artistic direction of Daniel Hope, President of the Beethoven-Haus. To mark the anniversary, Hope will be devoting five events entitled "Humanism" to the question of how music can be used to express a utopia or demonstrate an attitude.

The anniversary programme is available on the Beethoven-Haus website at www.beethoven.de/bthvn2024.

See also the following overview of the BTHVN2024 anniversary events

Press kit:
Resound Beethoven 9
Photos
Special exhibition Bernstein's Beethoven
BTHVN WOCHE 2024

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

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

BTHVN2024
Events organised by the Beethoven-Haus
on the 200th anniversary of the Ninth Symphony

March to June 2024
Presentation in the museum's treasure chamber
Original manuscripts and special documents relating to the works of the 1824 premiere concert

3 May to 19 August 2024 at the museum
(Vernissage on 2 May - by invitation)
Bernstein's Beethoven - Ode to Freedom

3 May 2024
Preview (by invitation)
In the presence of the director Larry Weinstein
Beethoven's Nine - Ode to Humanity
Documentary ZDF/ARTE 2024 (first broadcast on Arte on 5 May, 22:45)

4 to 6 May 2024
International academic conference to mark the 200th anniversary 
of Beethoven's academies in 1824 - in the Chamber Music Hall (admission free)
“Never heard, never suspected miracles-secrets of the sacred art”

7 and 8 May 2024, each at 7 pm
Festival concerts
RESOUND Beethoven 9 - The programme of the world premiere
Historic Town Hall, Wuppertal
Ludwig van Beethoven
Overture to "The Consecration of the House" in C major op. 124
Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei from the Missa solemnis in D major op. 123
Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125
With Chen Reiss, soprano, Sara Fulgoni, alto, Michael Schade, tenor, 
and Florian Boesch, bass
WDR Radio Choir
Vienna Academy Orchestra
Conductor: Martin Haselböck
In co-operation with WDR. The concerts will be recorded and broadcast on WDR television on 12 May. The concert on 7 May will be streamed live on the internet (including on the Beethoven-Haus YouTube channel) and also broadcast live on the radio on WDR3 (and via EBU).

8 to 11 May 2024
Chamber music festival
BTHVN WEEK
Humanism
Artistic director: Daniel Hope
Detailed programme at www.beethoven.de/bthvn2024

Tickets for the festival concerts and the BTHVN WOCHE are available at www.bonnticket.de, in the Beethoven-Haus shop or at the usual eventim advance booking offices.

About the Beethoven-Haus Bonn: Founded in 1889, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn Association is regarded as the leading international Beethoven centre. It has set itself the task of keeping Beethoven's life, work and influence alive. The cultural institution includes the world's most important Beethoven collection, the museum in Beethoven's birthplace with over 100,000 visitors per year (before corona), a musicological research department, library and publishing house as well as the Hermann J. Abs Chamber Music Hall. Supported by over 700 friends, sponsors and members from over 20 countries, supported by the federal government, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Rhineland Regional Association and the federal city of Bonn, the Beethoven-Haus fulfils a cultural mission of national and international importance. The violinist Daniel Hope has been President since March 2020.