Ludwig van Beethoven
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, a chamber music festival and an exhibition on Leonard Bernstein round off the anniversary program.
The concerts will feature the Vienna Academy Orchestra, a period instrument orchestra under the direction of Martin Haselböck, and the WDR Radio Choir.
« 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, » says Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.
The symphony was premiered on 7 May 1824 in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor in a music academy conceived by Beethoven himself.
« Beethoven’s last symphony was not the only work on the program 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 will now be repeated for the first time and performed on the instruments and in the sound of 1824. »
