Start of the festivities Beethoven Anniversary Year kicks off in Bonn

Bonn · A city celebrates a birthday. And because it is Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday, the whole world celebrates with us. On Monday evening, the twelve-month marathon celebration kicked off at the Bonn Opera House.

 (From left): Malte Boecker, NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet, Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan, NRW Minister of Culture Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, District Administrator Sebastian Schuster and Ralf Birkner.

(From left): Malte Boecker, NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet, Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan, NRW Minister of Culture Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, District Administrator Sebastian Schuster and Ralf Birkner.

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

On Monday evening, the twelve-month marathon celebration of the Beethoven anniversary year got underway at the Bonn Opera House. The flag of the Beethoven Jubilee Society, bearing the lettering “BTHVN2020”, marked the occasion. The finish line for the celebrations will be December 17, 2020, the 250th anniversary of the baptism of the Bonn-born composer.

Many invited guests were present, including prominent persons but also many Beethoven fans who had won free tickets. It was aired by cultural broadcaster WDR 3, one of the sponsors of free tickets.

After short welcoming speeches by saxophonist Peter Materna, Bonn's Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan and NRW's Prime Minister Armin Laschet, the Leonoren Overture No. 3 was Ludwig van Beethoven's first work to be performed that evening. Beethoven composed it for the second version of his only opera "Fidelio", which was performed in Vienna in 1806 under the title "Leonore". Dirk Kaftan and his musicians played it with energy and passion. For the guests from Bonn and perhaps also the one or the other who came from further away, it was a perfect foretaste of "Fidelio", which will have its premiere on New Year's Day.

Monika Grütter, Minister of State for Culture, held a speech in which she emphasized the composer's relevance today. "To this day, his music touches, moves, inspires and connects people across all borders. So it's not difficult to bring him into the present day as a globally revered mega-star," she said. But Grütters also reminded of the dark times when Beethoven's legacy was used for political purposes, for example, German nationalism.

This did not do justice to Beethoven, she said. On the contrary, the composer had dedicated his work to mankind and humanity. He had longed for a time in which the unifying among people weighed more than the separating, "be it social origin, culture, religion, skin color or gender".

"Beethoven is thus not only a worthy godfather of European unity; Beethoven is a true citizen of the world. In the face of the strengthening of a nationalism long believed to have been overcome, in the face of populist calls for isolation and exclusion, we can draw courage and confidence from the visionary power of his music", proclaimed the minister.

The Pasticcio "O Freunde, nicht diese Töne" (O Friends, not these Tones), which alludes to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and which the British music critic and librettist Paul Griffiths had compiled from newly texted works by the composer, also fitted into this narrative. Here, too, the ideal of freedom permeated the musical story-telling, led by conductor Dirk Kaftan, with the Beethoven Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, the Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens and the actor Matthias Brandt, who grew up in Beethoven's native town. After the great performance of the Pasticcio by the orchestra, choir and the two soloists, there was a heavy applause from the audience.

An exciting and thought-provoking start. It should continue just like this in 2020.

(Orig. text: Bernhard Hartmann;Translation summary: ck)

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