Beethovenfest Bonn 2022
Beethovenfest Bonn 2022
More than 100 events took place from August 25 to September 17. These was included classical orchestra concerts in the opera house, but also unusual formats such as concerts in the dark, in LGBTQ-friendly establishments or in an abandoned swimming pool.
In the lead-up to the official opening concert on August 26 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer, artistic director Walter decided on a spiritual, sensual church concert in Bonn Minster Cathedral. The concert was featured Ludwig van Beethoven's "A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity" for string quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, which he wrote after recovering from a serious illness.
Ludwig van Beethoven is the festival's spiritual guardrail, Walter explains, highlighting in particular the composer's political positioning. "The 'Eroica,' his third symphony, which was played at the opening concert, is strongly political and a work of contemporary history," Walter said, alluding to the fact that Beethoven once dedicated the work to Napoleon Bonaparte because he shared the French Revolution's goals of "liberty, equality and fraternity." When Napoleon later had himself crowned emperor, Beethoven took back the dedication.
"Beethoven Moves" is the name of one of the social projects to which the Beethoven Festival offered a platform. "This is a wonderful project in which Colombian street children, many of them former child soldiers, artistically create Ludwig von Beethoven's Fifth Symphony with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. They use urban forms of expression such as hip-hop dance and graffiti," says Walter. Together with young people from Germany, they address central issues such as freedom, power, courage and revolution.
A project of the Don Bosco Mission Bonn and the Beethoven Orchestra also targets helping in a very concrete way and giving the young people better educational opportunities in their home country.
At the Festival took place the solidarity concert at the opening Beethoven Festival weekend: The Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (YSOU) performed under its founder, Oksana Lyniv. "I have always dreamed of coming back to Bonn with this orchestra," the conductor told DW. "However, under different auspices. But especially in view of the terrible war, it is all the more important to send a signal that Ukraine plays a central role in the context of European culture!"
In addition to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and music from Ukraine, the YSOU performed a work commissioned by DW. "Bucha. Lacrimosa" is the name of the piece by Kyiv-based composer Victoria Poleva. Impacted by image of the destroyed village of Bucha near Kyiv, she composed her piece about the souls of tortured Ukrainians rising to heaven. "Writing this work was the only way of survival for me," Poleva told DW.
Political commitment, diversity and sustainability are to shape the Beethoven Festival not only this year, but also in the years to come.
Each year, it sets a different focus. In 2023, the focus will be on how we treat our planet, climate protection and sustainability.
About the Beethovenfest Bonn
A festival in the city of Beethoven's birth. The heart of the Bonn Beethovenfest is the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. Here performances by internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles give local, regional, nationwide and worldwide impetus to the preservation of his oeuvre. To the present day the festival has created dramatic interdisciplinary ties to Beethoven's past, present and future.
The Beethovenfest Bonn is one of the oldest and most important music festivals in Germany. Founded in 1845 by Franz Liszt in Beethoven's birthplace, it is now an internationally recognized cultural beacon with around 80 events in Bonn and the region every year in August and September.
Under its artistic director Steven Walter, the Beethovenfest is currently repositioning itself: as a festival that reaches out to all demographic groups, a festival that thinks radically contemporary and future-oriented to a living tradition, testing out the future of concert life in a variety of ways and playing a significant role in shaping it.
"All men become brothers" is the core message of the famous ode "To Joy" from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The first festival under the artistic direction of Steven Walter is directed towards humanity’s diversity and wants to translate Beethoven's humanistic gesture into concrete programming: a festival of musical diversity; a coming together of the most diverse origins and identities in the common »home of music«; a celebration in which Beethoven's work meets the diverse world of the 21st century.
In addition to exceptional interpretations of Beethoven’s sonatas, string quartets and symphonies, special attention is placed on supporting contemporary music. Each year, the Beethovenfest commissions and premieres a number of pieces. Overall, the festival features more than 60 concerts at more than 25 venues each year. The stages include venues in the old town and, of course, the Beethovenhaus, the house where the composer was born, as well as castles and churches in the area.
Among the artists appearing regularly are the stars of the modern classical music scene. Many of them work exclusively for the Bonner Publikum programmes, which focus on the season’s theme.
