Joseph Haydn, often called the father of the string quartet, wrote some 70 works in the genre. His ninth and last series of quartets, the Erdoedy Quartets, were commissioned by the Hungarian Count Erdoedy in 1796 at a price of 100 ducats. At the time, a contemporary of Haydn's called them "masterly and full of new ideas."

In the concert, the Pavel Haas Quartet played the "Fifths" Quartet, Op. 76, No. 2. The work received its name because of the central role played by that interval - the fifth - in the first movement.

Antonin Dvorak

Antonin Dvorak's compositions have their roots in Bohemian folk music. Johannes Brahms championed this composer from the provinces, writing: "This fellow has more ideas than all of us put together. Anyone else could cobble together main themes out of the things he throws away."

Dvorak composed the String Quintet, Op. 97 during a prolonged stay in the United States, where he had become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Those familiar with the quintet hear hints of Native American rhythms in the second and fourth movements. For the concert in the Bonn, viola player Masumi Per Rostad joined the Pavel Haas Quartet. In their interpretation, the musicians displayed extreme concentration and fascinating eloquence.

Program:

Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 Hob. III:76 ("Fifths")

Antonin Dvorak

String Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97

Performed by:

Pavel Haas Quartet

Recorded by Deutsche Welle at the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn on Sept. 20, 2009

Marita Berg/gz/kjb

Conceived as a thematic cycle, the String Quartet Project provided the opportunity to hear guest performances by four internationally reputed string quartets from three continents: the Australian String Quartet, the Pacifica Quartet from the USA, the Pavel Haas Quartet from the Czech Republic and the Kuss Quartet from Berlin.

The young musicians presented works from the quartet repertoire from the 18th century to the present day. In addition, each quartet played a work by a composer from its country of origin.

Kuss Quartet

The Kuss Quartet opened the series of concerts with the String Quartet K. 458, subtitled "The Hunt," by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It owes its nickname to the theme of the first movement, which recalls a hunter's horn call.

The Kuss Quartet then played another classic work, the String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major by Johannes Brahms. It is one of just three string quartets that Brahms ever wrote. The Kuss Quartet gave convincing interpretations of both works, combining spontaneous musicality with a robust, always transparent sound.

Pacifica Quartet

For the second part of the concert, dedicated to contemporary music, the Pacifica Quartet played a work by American composer George Crumb (1929 -): "Black Angels - Thirteen Images from the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet." Crumb wrote this piece as a reaction to the Vietnam War. In the score, he noted: "Finished on Friday the Thirteenth, March, 1970 in tempore belli [in time of war]." It is a mystical, spiritual piece about the darkness and profound mystery of the world, about God and the Devil, about fallen angels. Its effect is heightened by the use of electronic amplification. Highlighting its ingenious sound effects, the Pacifica Quartet, which is especially committed to contemporary music, played the work with great precision and intensity.

Program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet in B-flat Major, K 458 ("Hunt")

Johannes Brahms

String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 67

George Crumb:

"Black Angels - Thirteen images from the dark land" for electric string quartet

Performed by:

Kuss Quartet

Pacifica Quartet

Performed at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn on Sept. 18, 2009 and recorded by Deutsche Welle

Norbert Hornig/gz/kjb

In the second part of the Campus Concert, the student orchestra played a symphony that, at its premiere in Vienna in 1814, was perceived as the expression of a joyful mood of victory and liberation. Two months previously, the allied troops of Prussia, Austria, Russia and Sweden had precipitated the decline of Napoleon's hegemony in Europe at the Battle of Leipzig.

Richard Wagner was later to describe the Seventh Symphony as the "apotheosis of the dance." Carl Maria von Weber, however, was of the opinion - probably referring to the last movement - that Beethoven should be sent "to the madhouse for this piece."

In the land of Beethoven

The young musicians from Vietnam, all aged between 16 and 24, played with great courage. The audience applauded enthusiastically and the orchestra expressed its thanks by playing the end of the Scherzo as an encore.

The Hanoi Conservatory of Music was founded in 1956 under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and Information. The aim: to preserve and develop the legacy of traditional music, but also to help open the country to musical influences from around the world.

Every year, over 1,500 pupils and students are trained in 32 different musical fields on five levels: from the basic level for children to university studies and postgraduate courses. The Academy employs over 200 lecturers and also carries out academic research.

From Bonn to Hanoi

Next year, the Beethovenfest, in partnership with Deutsche Welle, is planning a return visit to Vietnam to mark the German-Vietnamese Year of Culture agreed upon by the governments in Bonn and Hanoi for 2010. The program in Hanoi will include concerts and workshops with Vietnamese musicians.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, op. 92: Allegro con brio

Performed by:

Orchestra of the Vietnam National Academy of Music Hanoi

Conductor: Claire Levacher

Performed on September 27, 2009 and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

Carla Gehrmann-Zellen/rf/kjb

In the first movement of Johannes Brahms' Cello Sonata No. 1, the cello immediately takes earlier center stage with the cantabile main theme. The Sonata op. 38 was composed in two stages, with Brahms writing the first three movements in 1862 and the last one three years later. Before it was published, he removed one of the middle movements, possibly fearing that the sonata could be too long. The first and third movements contain short passages that seem borrowed from Beethoven and Bach; some experts see them as a homage to these composers.

Program:

Johannes Brahms

Sonata for cello and piano No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38

Performed by:

Johannes Moser (cello)

Paul Rivinius (piano)

Recorded by Deutsche Welle at the Collegium Leoninum, in Bonn, Germany on September 25, 2009

Norbert Hornig/gz/kjb

The Cello Sonata by Alexander Zemlinsky, written in 1894, was rediscovered only a few years ago. Although is clearly influenced by Brahms, the sonata already prefigures 20th-century music. Zemlinsky, long overshadowed by his friends and fellow composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, is stylistically somewhere between late romanticism and modernism. The composer said of himself: "I can wait; my time will come only after my death."

Program:

Alexander von Zemlinsky

Sonata for cello and piano in A minor

Performed by:

Johannes Moser, cello

Paul Rivinius, piano

Recorded by Deutsche Welle at the Collegium Leoninum, in Bonn, Germany on September 25, 2009.

Norbert Hornig/gz/kjb

Beethoven's last cello sonata, Op. 102, No. 2, in three movements, is one of the most musically and technically demanding compositions for cello, on a par with Bach's solo suites. It is a typical example of Beethoven's daring late style. Even years after its first performance in 1815, a critic voiced surprise that the cello and piano were given equal prominence, with neither playing an accompanying role.

Johannes Moser, one of the most outstanding cellists of our time, draws a full and sensual sound from his instrument, filling the hall in almost majestic fashion. Paul Rivinius, his partner on the piano, contributes greatly towards making this performance an experience to remember.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata for cello and piano no. 5 in D major op. 102/2

Recorded by Deutsche Welle at the Collegium Leoninum, in Bonn, Germany on September 25, 2009.

Norbert Hornig/gz/kjb

The title arouses curiosity: a German requiem? What could be German about this work? The answer is simple: in it, Johannes Brahms took sixteen passages from the Bible and composed a requiem in the German language.

This set him apart from other composers. A requiem is the mass for the dead in the Catholic liturgy and was traditionally held in Latin, as laid down at the Council of Trent in 1545. Newly composed liturgical church music was expected to follow the established Latin text.

Comfort to the living

Brahms, a Protestant, didn't write a requiem in the conventional sense but a kind of funeral music with texts chosen freely from the Bible as translated by Luther. In contrast to the traditional requiem, it contains no description of the horrors of the Last Judgement ("dies irae"), but instead offers comfort to the living and the bereaved.

This becomes clear in the very first movement: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Matthew 5:4)

A Masterpiece for Piano-Four-Hands

Johannes Brahms wrote the Requiem following the deaths of both his mother and his friend Robert Schumann.

Brahms also arranged the orchestral score of the Requiem for piano-four-hands, wanting to make it possible to perform the work on a small scale as well. In a letter to Clara Schumann, he wrote with some self-irony: "I have devoted myself to the noble activity of making my immortal work accessible for four-handed souls as well."

He found arranging the piece to be "bitter work," because he didn't want to leave out any of its "many beauties." Clara Schumann answered, "Your arrangement is very beautiful; it is very playable, but still so rich."

In the Stiftskirche in Bonn, Germany's oldest radio chorus, the Berlin Radio Chorus under its conductor Simon Halsey, demonstrated clearly why it received a Grammy for its recording of the Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The unfamiliar sound of two pianos in place of an orchestra made this choral concert very special.

Program:

Johannes Brahms

A German Requiem op. 45, part 4: "Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen" (How Amiable are Thy Tabernacles)

Performed by:

Philip Moll, piano
Philip Mayers, piano

Berlin Radio Chorus

Conductor: Simon Halsey

Performed on Sept. 26, 2009 in the Stiftskirche Bonn and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

Carla Gehrmann-Zellen/rf/kjb

The Australian String Quartet is formerly known as the Tankstream Quartet. In 2007, the latter received official government backing and was renamed, continuing a tradition of many years and entitling the quartet to receive special subsidies and fulfil official tasks.

Australian String Quartet

In the Beethoven House in Bonn, the four musicians played "High Tension Wires," written by Australian composer Nigel Westlake in 1994. Westlake did not study composition, but film and television. He has written film music as well as conventional symphonies. The quartet made "High Tension Wires" a truly electrifying experience for the audience.

The Australian String Quartet also ventured into the very heart of German Romanticism with Felix Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 1. In the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik," Mendelssohn's friend Robert Schumann once called him the "Mozart of the 19th century." The four musicians interpreted this quartet with exuberant musicality and tonal brilliance.

Pavel Haas Quartet

The Pavel Haas Quartet is named after the Czech composer Pavel Haas, a pupil of Leos Janacek. Haas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Most of the compositions he wrote in concentration camp were lost.

The use of percussion in a string quartet concert is unusual, but it occurred twice during this performance. One instance was a composition by the Berlin-born British composer Alexander Goehr: "Since Brass, nor Stone," dedicated "To the memory of Pavel Haas and his colleagues." Goehr was inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 65 to compose a reflection on death and the transitory nature of existence:

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea / But sad mortality o'er-sways their power / …O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out / Against the wreckful siege of battering days / When rocks impregnable are not so stout / Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? …

When Pavel Haas composed his String Quartet No. 2 in 1925, he could not foresee any of the horrors that Nazism would bring. He wrote: "This completely carefree work is dominated by the impulse of motion, bird calls, the rumbling of village carts, the beating of the human heart …" Haas was inspired by a visit to the Moravian mountains. In the city where he lived, the Moravian capital Brno, people called this backwoods area the "Monkey Mountains."

Haas originally conceived the work for a jazz band. The percussion part, which he deleted from the work after the first performance, was long lost and rediscovered only recently. The concert ended with a passionate Vivace (entitled "A Wild Night") that also uses percussion, thus concluding as it had begun: with "high tension."

Program:

Nigel Westlake

"High Tension Wires," string quartet no. 1

Felix Mendelssohn

String Quartet no. 1 for 2 violins, viola and cello in D major, op. 44

Alexander Goehr

"Since Brass, nor Stone" - Fantasia for string quartet and percussion, op. 80

Pavel Haas

String Quartet op. 7 no. 2 ("From the Monkey Mountains")

Performed by:

Australian String Quartet

Pavel Haas Quartet

Performed at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, on September 19, 2009 and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

Marita Berg/gz/kjb

During Beethoven's lifetime, piano construction developed at a rapid rate, much as computer technology has done in our era. For the first time, a keyboard instrument became capable of being played not just loudly or softly, but with a wide range of dynamic nuances. Beethoven used this as an opportunity to experiment with new expressive possibilities on the piano.

"In his music, Beethoven always tried to take things to the limit: not just the formal limit, but also the limit of the instruments available to him," Ronald Brautigam said in an interview with DW.

Like Beethoven, Brautigam - the "king of that strange period beast, the fortepiano," as The Times once called him - went to the limits of what the fortepiano has to offer. He gave a spirited, fearless account of the "Waldstein" Sonata, with glistening, seemingly endless chains of trills and glissandi. In the lyrical "Pastoral," he played with an enchantingly cantabile touch, drawing silvery, lustrous sounds from the instrument.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major Op. 22

Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major Op. 28, “Pastoral“

Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor Op. 90

Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major Op. 53, “Waldstein Sonata“

Performed by:

Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano

Performed on September 24, 2009 at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

Marita Berg/gz/kjb

The first concert in the series was given by Andrea Lucchesini in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. The Italian pianist is not among the fortepiano specialists in the historical performance scene. For his concert, he played both on a fortepiano - a copy of an instrument built in 1824 by the piano maker Conrad Graf - and a Steinway grand. The latter was not used for Beethoven's music, but for a piano sonata by the composer Luciano Berio, who died six years ago; Lucchesini premiered the piece in Zurich in 2001.

With and Without the Fortepiano: Historical and Modern Instruments

In this concert, two different worlds of piano sound confronted each other to great effect. In the Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 78, Lucchesini made the fortepiano sing with his tender, expressive playing. The conductor Hans von Buelow said once of the four-bar adagio introduction to this piece: "If Beethoven had written nothing else but these four bars, he would be immortal."

The change to the Steinway grand for Berio's piano sonata came almost as a shock. New tone colors and sounds filled the room, and the volume and explosive dynamics of the modern grand piano seemed to overshadow the intimacy of the fortepiano. But this intimacy returned with Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, the most radical and innovative work of the sonata cycle at the time of its composition. When Beethoven, by this time almost completely deaf, composed it in 1817/18, he told his pupil Carl Czerny: "I am writing a sonata that is to be my greatest." Many pianists still stand in fear of the final movement, in which Beethoven shows no consideration for the fact that a pianist has only two hands to cope with its technical demands.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Minor Op. 78

Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier Sonata")

Luciano Berio

Piano Sonata

Performed by:

Andrea Lucchesini (piano, fortepiano)

Performed on September 14, 2009 in the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

Norbert Hornig/gz/kjb

For a Beethoven festival to begin with a work commissioned from a contemporary composer says a lot about this particular series of events, which has set itself the task of demonstrating the enduring influence of the composer born in Bonn.

Fitting this year's festival motto "In the Light," investigating the myth of the artist, a highly inspired young composer was awarded the commission. Moritz Eggert's "Number Nine VIII: Timed Work" is a retrospective of the 60-year history of the Federal Republic of Germany, including sampled statements by famous people from Konrad Adenauer, the country’s first chancellor, to American President John F. Kennedy to Andreas Baader, a leftist terrorist during the 1970s. To driving, sometimes jazzy rhythms from the orchestra, the composer himself plays solo piano, operates a synthesizer resembling a colorful toy instrument placed atop the grand piano and performs a couple of gags such as launching a paper airplane into the audience.

Considerably more serious in mood is Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, written in memory of the life and death of a young girl the composer was acquainted with. In the second half of the concert: Beethoven’s "Eroica" Symphony, rendered by conductor Ingo Metzmacher with eloquence, nearly no bombast and with extreme clarity.

Program:

Moritz Eggert (1965-):

"Number Nine VIII: Timed Work" for soloist and orchestra (world premiere, commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn)

Alban Berg (1885-1935):

Violin Concerto ("To the Memory of an Angel")

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 ("Eroica")

Performed by:

Moritz Eggert (piano, sampler)

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

German Symphony Orchestra, Berlin

Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher

Performed on Sept. 4, 2009 in the Beethoven Hall, Bonn and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

rf/kjb

Probably the most beautiful site along the Path to Democracy is Schaumburg Palace, once the residence of a Prussian princess and later of five German chancellors. Here pianist Stefan Litwin had the task of depicting the decade from 1959-1969 in music.

Listening to Gyorgy Ligeti’s "Poem symphonique" for 100 metronomes in the former office of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was a fascinating experience. Stefan Litwin, born in Mexico, is known for devising concert programs that are full of variety and serious yet entertaining. This one included Leonard Bernstein’s captivating "Anniversaries," "Variations" by John Cage based on interview texts by Bob Dylan, an exciting early work by German composer Helmut Lachenmann and music by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Program

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Anniversaries

John Cage (1912-1992)

2 Realizations of “Variations II“ (with texts by Bob Dylan)

Helmut Lachenmann (1935-)

“Wiegenmusik” (Cradle Music)

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

Klavierstück IX (Piano Piece IX)

Mauricio Kagel (1931-2007)

„MM 41“ for piano and metronome

Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)

Poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes

Performed by

Stefan Litwin (piano)

musikFabrik soloists

Recorded by Deutsche Welle in Schaumburg Palace on Sept. 6, 2009.

ab/kjb

Last stop in the Beethovenfest concerts on the "Path to Democracy:" the "House of History," a museum of German history in Bonn that opened fifteen years ago. Performing there on Sept. 6, 2009, was vocal artist Salome Kammer. Accompanied by three members of the Ensemble Aventure, she began with "O quam praetiosa," a sacred song by Hildegard von Bingen written approximately 850 years ago and recently recorded for "Visions," a film by Margarethe von Trotta about von Bingen's life.

Helmut Oehring and Iris ter Schiphorst set "Live or Die" by American poet Anne Sexton to music. The Pulitzer Prize-winning verse speaks of the longing for death on the part of the manic-depressive poet, who committed suicide in 1974, and makes breakneck demands on the voice. The piece "Die Alte" and its counterpart, "Emil" - both for solo voice - were written by Cologne composer Carola Bauckholt. Turning to popular music, Salome Kammer then sang three "Chansons bizarres" by Peter Ludwig, who also accompanied at the piano.

By the time she got to "Tinnitus," whose text is the description of pharmaceutical items, it seemed that this remarkable singer and vocal artist could even do a fascinating vocal rendition of a telephone book. Concluding her enthusiastically applauded performance was a work commissioned by the Beethovenfest in Bonn: "Kanzlerwahl. BRD-Song," written by Peter Ludwig and dealing with everything from Germany’s constitution to national elections.

Program

Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)

"O quam praetiosa" for voice accompanied by bordun

Helmut Oehring (1961-) / Iris Schiphorst (1956-)

"Live or Die" for voice, violin, cello, prepared piano/sample keyboard and live electronics

Carola Bauckholt (1959)

"Die Alte" for voice solo

"Emil" for voice solo

Peter Ludwig (1951)

"Chansons bizarres:" 1) Loslassen, 2) Tinnitus, 3) Bordeaux

"Kanzlerwahl. BRD-Song" for voice and piano (world premiere, commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn)

Performed by:

Salome Kammer (vocal artist)

Ensemble Aventure:

Friedemann Amadeus Treiber (violin)

Beverly Ellis (cello)

Akiko Okabe-Dierstein (piano, keyboard)

Peter Ludwig (piano)

Sebastian Schottke (sound direction)

Recorded by Deutsche Welle in the House of History, Bonn, on Sept. 6, 2009.

What is now one of Europe's most modern multimedia facilities was originally designed as office space for Germany's parliamentarians. After the country's unification and the move of the government to Berlin, it became the Deutsche Welle headquarters.

Two musicians who were born in Moscow and studied there - Mikhail Ovrutsky, 29, concert master of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn and Grigory Alumyan, 32, cello chair in the same orchestra - joined forces in 2005 with Japanese pianist Rinko Hama to found the Beethoven Trio Bonn.

The centerpiece of their program dedicated to the 1980's was two works by Wolfgang Rihm. In his "Fremdszenen" (Foreign Scenes), the composer, then 30 years old, explored the tonal idiom of Robert Schumann. Those pieces are framed by Astor Piazzolla's "Seasons," symbolizing the 1980's, when Piazzolla's "Tango Nuevo" style became enormously popular in Germany.

Program

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Tangos (arranged by Jose Bragato):

Primavera Porteña

Verano Porteño

Wolfgang Rihm (1952-)

"Fremde Szene II" for violin, cello and piano

"Fremde Szene III" for violin, cello and piano

Astor Piazzolla

Tangos (arranged by Jose Bragato):

Invierno Portena

Otono Porteno

Performed by

Beethoven Trio Bonn: Mikhail Ovrutsky (violin), Grigory Alumyan (cello), Rinko Hama (piano)

Recorded by Deutsche Welle on Sept. 6, 2009 at DW headquarters in Bonn.

ab/kjb

One of the Beethovenfest's concerts on the "Path to Democracy" took place at the Museum Koenig in Bonn, a zoological research facility.

Lacking a more suitable location, this is where members of the Parliamentary Council met on Sept. 1, 1948, to work out the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. That early transitional period in the country’s history was given musical meaning through a selection of swing and jazz music, a style that had been scorned and prohibited during the 12-year period of National Socialism.

The John Goldsby Quintet performed jazz favorites by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Ornette Coleman. Band leader and string bass player John Goldsby from Kentucky has been a member of the WDR Big Band for fifteen years. The quintet’s joy in music making was evident both visually and aurally.

Their session was interrupted by two taped pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen. At the electronic music studios of West German Radio in Cologne (WDR), Stockhausen created his first compositions of electronic music in 1953: "Studie I" and "Studie II," which completely revolutionized music. "Gesang der Juenglinge" (Song of the Youths) dates from 1956. Years after the first performance and under the enduring impression of the Nazi era, Stockhausen said he felt like a youth in a fiery oven, forced by Nebukadnezar to pray to false gods.

Program:

Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)

Take the A Train

John Carisi (1922-1992)

Israel

Charlie Parker (1920-1955)

Moose the Mooch

Thelonius Monk (1917–1982)

Epistrophy

Round Midnight

Ornette Coleman (1930-)

Lonely Woman

Program:

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)

Studie II

Gesang der Jünglinge

Performed by:

John Goldsby Quintet:

Rich Perry (tenor saxophone)

Hubert Nuss (piano)

Joachim Schönecker (guitar)

Hans Dekker (percussion)

John Goldsby (bass)

Sebastian Schottke (sound direction)

Soloists of the Musik Fabrik

Performed on Sept. 6, 2009 in the Museum König and recorded by Deutsche Welle

cgz/kjb

The former assembly hall of the Bundesrat (Germany's upper house of parliament) is luxuriously appointed with massive wooden tables. That thoroughly conservative space was the scene of what was probably the most extreme program of the full-day concert marathon, with experimental works by Dieter Schnebel, Richard Barrett and Thierry de Meye and improvised sound by the DJ formation "Institut für Feinmotorik."

The works "Musik de tables" (Table Music) by Belgian composer Thierry de Mey and "Bauernszene" (Farmer's Scene) by German composer Dieter Schnebel are considered to be so-called "sound music." With Schnebel, the instruments are rolling plates and clattering cutlery, while in de Mey's piece it is six hands clapping, scratching and beating on the venerable tables.

"Interference," a work by British composer Richard Barrett, explores the sound cosmos of the bass clarinet. It was written for clarinettist Carl Rosmann, a soloist of the Musikfabrik, who also performed it in this concert. The scholarly sounding name "Institut fuer Feinmotorik" (Institute for fine motor activity) is used by four Cologne DJ's whose main instrument, the record player, is complemented by every other kind of object and who clearly have fun at improvisation - to the great enjoyment of visiting classes of schoolchildren at the concert.

Program

Dieter Schnebel (1930-)

Bauernszene

Richard Barrett (1959-)

Interference

Thierry de Mey (1956-)

Musique de Tables

Institut für Feinmotorik

Tracks from Minimal Techno to Rocking Grooves

Performed by

Soloists of the musikFabrik: Carl Rosman (clarinet), Thomas Meixner, Alban Wesly, Thomas Oesterdiekhoff und Dirk Rothbrust

Institut fuer Feinmotorik: Daniel van den Eijkel, Mark Bruederle, Florian Meyer und Marc Matter.

Recorded by Deutsche Welle on Sept. 6, 2009 in the Assembly Hall of the Bundesrat, Bonn.

ab/kjb

One of the Beethovenfest concerts on the "Path to Democracy" took place at the Museum Koenig in Bonn, a zoological research facility.

Lacking a more suitable location, this is where members of the Parliamentary Council met on September 1, 1948, to work out the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. That early transitional period in the country’s history was given musical meaning through a selection of swing and jazz music, a style that had been scorned and prohibited during the 12-year period of National Socialism.

The John Goldsby Quintet performed jazz favorites by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Ornette Coleman. Band leader and string bass player John Goldsby from Kentucky has been a member of the WDR Big Band for 15 years. The quintet’s joy in music making was evident both visually and aurally.

Their session was "interrupted" by two taped pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen. At the electronic music studios of West German Radio in Cologne (WDR), Stockhausen created his first compositions of electronic music in 1953: "Studie I" and "Studie II," which completely revolutionized music. "Gesang der Juenglinge" (Song of the Youths) dates from 1956. Years after the first performance and under the enduring impression of the Nazi era, Stockhausen said he felt like a youth in a fiery oven, forced by Nebukadnezar to pray to false gods.

Program:

Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)

Take the A Train

John Carisi (1922-1992)

Israel

Charlie Parker (1920-1955)

Moose the Mooch

Thelonius Monk (1917–1982)

Epistrophy

Round Midnight

Ornette Coleman (1930-)

Lonely Woman

Program:

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)

Studie II

Gesang der Juenglinge

Performed by:

John Goldsby Quintet:

Rich Perry (tenor saxophone)

Hubert Nuss (piano)

Joachim Schönecker (guitar)

Hans Dekker (percussion)

John Goldsby (bass)

Sebastian Schottke (sound direction)

Soloists of the Musik Fabrik

Performed on Sept. 6, 2009 in the Museum König and recorded by Deutsche Welle

cgz/kjb

For the musician, performing all of Beethoven's nine symphonies in four days is an endurance test, and for the listener, a revelation. As conductor Paavo Jarvi revealed to DW in an exclusive interview, "The aspect that the audience takes away from the experience is suddenly seeing a bigger picture of how the symphonies relate to one another. Hearing everything in a very concentrated, short period of time very intensely, even hearing the first three symphonies in one concert, there is a noticeable difference from the first symphony to the 'Eroica.' And for the players, one simply cannot underestimate the degree of understanding and the familiarity with the text thus achieved. You start to inhabit that world in a way that you could never do otherwise." We invite you to co-inhabit the world of Beethoven in this nine-part podcast series, each installment with a single movement from the respective symphony, beginning with the third movement from the First Symphony, dating from 1800.

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Much has been written and said about Beethoven's Third Symphony, a revolutionary work from a revolutionary era. It was inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte, who ignited the dreams of a generation. Maestro Jarvi, however, is skeptical about the value of words when it comes to understanding a musical masterpiece of this magnitude.

DW asked him to find a few words of description for each Beethoven symphony. "It doesn’t matter how musicologically advanced you might be and how much homework we have done and how much experimentation and how much reading we have done about it: the funeral march in 'Eroica' will mean something entirely different to a 15-year old than to somebody who went through the Second World War. It will mean something different for a person who has lost their child or for a person who is just conceptionally thinking of a military funeral which he or she has never seen," said Jarvi.

Whatever images may come to mind in this performance of the Funeral March from the "Eroica" (music from the year 1803), they will be just as real as any scholarly treatise.

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Estonian-American conductor Paavo Jarvi began his intensive collaboration with this group of musicians in 2004. Roughly half the size of a traditional orchestra, it has an uncustomary seating arrangement, with first and second violins distributed equally to the left and the right, and cellos and other lower strings seated behind them. As Jarvi told DW, "This is an original seating of the orchestras of Beethoven's time.'

Asked why he decided to record and perform the Beethoven cycle with the musicians from Bremen, he said, "I was immediately struck by the quality and energy of this orchestra. It has an incredibly strong point of view about these symphonies, which happens to coincide with how I hear them. I have a certain obsessive quest for details, obsessing about everything in order to try and find the truth."

This live-recorded performance of Beethoven's Second Symphony, composed in 1802, is one valid version of the "truth."

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After having recently completed the CD set of the Beethoven symphony cycle and given critically acclaimed performances in Japan, the US and Canada, Paris, Salzburg, and now in Beethoven's home town of Bonn, have this conductor and these musicians reached a comfort zone with the music by now?

No, said Jarvi: "One thing we have noticed with all those cycles and recordings, when we come back and start preparing for the cycle again, is: it doesn't get easier. Sometimes you wish that it does. Sometimes you wish, 'Oh my God, we're going to spend another three hours rehearsing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. We recorded it, we played it a hundred times. Still, we have to start again and see how far we can get."

In this rendition of the final two movements from Beethoven's Fifth, music from the year 1808, "how far they get" can be measured perhaps not in inches or miles, but in light years.

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Recording and performing all nine Beethoven symphonies requires some audacity, as the musicians have to come to terms not only with some of the supreme creations in the history of mankind, but also with the enormous weight of performance history. These works entered the repertory immediately from the early 1800's and never left it.

Can any new recording of the cycle make people stand up and listen? This one did, said Paavo Jarvi: "Once the CD started appearing, we got a lot attention for it. We didn’t quite expect that much. Because in the beginning the response was, 'What else are we going to say that hasn’t already been said?' But somehow we had enough confidence and maybe stupidity or youthful enthusiasm to go ahead with it. And we’re not competing with anybody. We just want to have ours."

Thanks to the efforts of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Deutsche Welle, this movement from Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, composed in 1806, is not only theirs, but yours as well.

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In the "Pastoral" - written in 1808, around the time of the Fifth Symphony - Beethoven introduced program music to the genre. With movement headings like "Scene by the Brook" and "Storm," it would seem to tell a story.

The composer himself, however, made a point of saying that this is music to convey a mood, not a particular situation. Our featured conductor concurs, telling DW that a specific description of the work would be too limiting: "The Pastoral Symphony can be taken completely as a piece of nature. But it can also be taken completely philosophically. This whole thing could easily be a year, or a life-cycle. It could be about a person. It could be a description of a day. It could be a description of whatever. It is my belief that it is not useful to describe music with words."

Nonetheless, the listener may well be advised to seek shelter for this rendition of the "Storm" movement, with an amazingly big sound from a rather small orchestra.

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"Beethoven Strikes Back!" wrote one newspaper critic after the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Jarvi performed in New York. A critic in Tokyo called it "The best Beethoven around."

After five years as Orchestra in Residence at the Beethovenfest, expectations were high in the 2009 season for this orchestra and conductor, performing the complete symphony cycle in the city of Beethoven's birth. However, they rose to the occasion and received standing ovations at each of the four concerts in the series.

On the subject of expectations, Jarvi says, "Of course we start now from a much higher level, and the work that we do now in the rehearsal before the cycle is entirely different than it was ten years ago. But our expectations are also higher. Our pressure to really live up to our own expectations is high. Not to mention everybody else's expectations."

This may be music from the year 1812, but in its own way, it "rocks."

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CD recordings can set standards, but as Paavo Jarvi revealed to DW, "Live performances have an entirely different communicative value. You're also playing for people and not for microphones."

In this set of performances, the concert hall expands substantially, from Bonn's Beethovenhalle, where they were recorded, to the PC and the MP3 player. What remains is the one-time-only experience of an event, with a musical interpretation to fit.

In Jarvi's own words: "I think what we are looking for is flexibility and as much freedom as possible. Very often in the course of a performance, there are little junctions where you have options. My main job, at a given moment, is to listen and to feel where the music wants to go. But for that you need to be emotionally very, very open. It is kind of like a raw nerve. And you also have to have an orchestra that is able to turn on a dime in case an idea that we never thought of comes at that moment. Very often it happens. I’m a strong believer in emotional intelligence."

There are ample amounts of that in Jarvi's take of the first movement from Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, written in 1812.

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Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is so identified with the choral finale, another Beethovenian innovation, that by comparison, the other three movements are neglected.

This rather vigorous rendition of the third movement from Beethoven’s Ninth - otherwise customarily performed in soft hues and static tempos - is another revelation of Beethoven a la Jarvi. Or to be more precise: Beethoven a la Jarvi on that particular evening in Bonn.

In his exclusive interview for DW, the maestro drew out the distinction between studio recordings and live performances: "There are different colors, there are different ways, there are longer pauses, maybe more or less concentration. Everything changes constantly. All the studying we do creates a strong safety net. So you can't really fall off that rope and kill yourself. But it has to be alive, it has to be a unique one: today's performance! The record remains exactly the way it's made, sort of set in stone. But our brains develop, and we grow. To think that there is a definitive performance of anything is absurd. The journey is the destination."

With this excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, written in 1824, we’ve reached the end of the cycle, but the journey continues.

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Every year, the Beethovenfest in Bonn and Deutsche Welle invites an outstanding young orchestra from a different part of the world to the festival's Orchestra Campus. In the past, there have been orchestras from Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, China, Poland, South Africa, Egypt and Russia. This year, Vietnam was chosen - a selection anticipating the German-Vietnamese Year of Culture that the two governments will celebrate in 2010 to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations.

A Campus concert always includes a symphony by Beethoven, a work from the musicians' homeland and the first performance of a work by a young composer from the selected country, commissioned by Deutsche Welle.

The concert opened with the Coriolan Overture, which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote in 1807 for the tragedy "Coriolan" by the Austrian dramatist Heinrich Joseph von Collin. The play has long since been forgotten, but the overture is part of the standard concert repertoire.

Musical impressions from Vietnam

Do Hong Quan, an established composer who is currently chairman of the Vietnamese Composers' Association, wrote the "Rhapsody of Vietnam," a luxuriant tone picture of landscapes, dances and festivities in four movements. It was given its first performance in 1985 in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

The 36-year-old Tran Manh Hung is among the most successful composers of his generation. As a commission for Deutsche Welle, he wrote the work "Le Chi Vien" for violin and orchestra, a "poem symphony."

The work tells the tragic story of the national hero Nguyen Trai, who, though innocent, was executed for regicide in 1442 together with his family. Twenty years later, Nguyen was rehabilitated - but not his wife, Nguyen Thi Lo. Violinist Bui Cong Duy drew a picture of the beautiful Thi Lo with a tender, lyrical tone - perhaps a belated musical homage after nearly 600 years.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Overture to Heinrich Joseph von Collin´s “Coriolanus” tragedy in C minor op. 62 (“Coriolanus Overture”)

Do Hong Quan

Viet Nam. Rhapsody for grand orchestra

Allegro Maestoso

Allegro marcato molto energico

Andante

Vivace

Tran Manh Hung

Le Chin Vien. Poem symphony for violin and orchestra (Premiere, commissioned by Deutsche Welle)

Performed by:

Graduate orchestra of the Vietnam National Academy of Music Hanoi

Bui Cong Duy (violin)

Claire Levacher (conductor)

Recorded by Deutsche Welle in Beethovenhalle Bonn on September 27, 2009.

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At the Vietnam Orchestra Campus, to which Deutsche Welle and the Bonn Beethovenfest invited the orchestra of the Hanoi Music Academy in September 2009, the young Vietnamese violinist Bui Cong Duy performed the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch. Bui Cong Duy is among Vietnam's top internationally known performing artists.

Prizewinner at eight

Bui Cong Duy was born in 1981 and began playing violin at the age of four, taking lessons from his father, Prof. Bui Cong Thanh. He won his first prize for music just four years later. In 1990, he was awarded first prize at the national Mua Thu music competition.

As a ten-year-old, he started studying at the Glinka State Conservatory in Novosibirsk in Russia, for which he had received two scholarships: the honorary scholarship for young Siberian talents and the Russian Ministry of Culture's scholarship for talented young musicians. At the age of 17, he continued his studies at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He won numerous prizes at competitions, including the first prize and gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and received the title "Asian Pride."

International performances

In 2006 Bui Cong Duy worked for the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra under the direction of Prof. Spivakov. He performed with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Festival Orchestra, the Ho Chi Minh Symphony Orchestra, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra and the Hanoi Symphony Orchestra, among others. He currently teaches at the Vietnam National Academy of Music Hanoi (VNAM).

Campus workshop

Bui Cong Duy's fiery interpretation of the popular Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch was met with an enthusiastic response from the audience in the Beethovenhalle in Bonn and the press. In particular, the audience and the media praised the full and flexible sound he drew from his violin. Bui Cong Duy was accompanied by the orchestra of the Hanoi Music Academy under the German conductor Peter Guelke.

Program:

Concerto for violin and orchestra no. 1 in G minor op. 26

Bùi Công Duy (violin)

Orchestra of the Vietnam National Academy of Music Hanoi

Conductor: Peter Gülke

Recorded by Deutsche Welle in the Beethovenhalle Bonn on September 30, 2009.

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On the last day of the four-week music festival, which had no lack of highlights, Kent Nagano and the Mahler Chamber Orcestra were the ones in the (lime-)light.

The program of the final concert consisted of the rarely played orchestral version of the “Grosse Fuge” (Op. 133) by Beethoven, the Metamorphoses by Richard Strauss and the 1st Symphony (Op. 68) by Johannes Brahms.

Metamorphoses

Richard Strauss wrote the “Metamorphoses” in 1945 in just one month, finishing them less than four weeks before Germany’s unconditional surrender in May of that year. Strauss composed the half-hour-long adagio under the direct impression of the bombed-out opera house and general destruction in Munich, the city of his birth. In the first drafts, he gave the piece the title “Sorrow over Munich”.

For Richard Strauss, who had celebrated many successes in famous opera houses, their destruction marked the end of an era. He called the “Metamorphoses” a “reflection of his entire past life”. A French critic said euphorically: “Perhaps Strauss lived for 85 years just to create this splendid work.”

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Kent Nagano conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. A former youth orchestra, it was founded by Claudio Abbado. Its members, who come from around 20 different countries, travel in to meet up for project phases.

In an interview with DW, Kent Nagano had this to say about the impressive performance of the “Metamorphoses”: “There is something destructive also to be heard in the harmonic structure of this work. Metamorphosis means change, transformation and, in the end, the creation of something new.”

And something new is created every year at the Beethovenfest as well: old compositions are played in new interpretations, new ones are premiered, and the new joins with the old – a metamorphosis and a new beginning. We invite you to join us in looking forward to the Beethovenfest in 2010.

Program:

Richard Strauss

Metamorphoses - Study for 23 solo strings

Performed by:

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Conductor: Kent Nagano

Performed in the Beethoven-Halle Bonn on October 3, 2009 and recorded by West German Radio, Cologne (WDR)

For the first time, this year's Beethovenfest presented all 32 piano sonatas played on copies of historical fortepianos. Among the highlights of the cycle were the two concerts given by the Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam, who is currently working on a complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas and is extremely conversant with the tonal possibilities offered by the fortepiano.

Even in the composer's three early sonatas (op. 2), Ronald Brautigam made it extremely apparent how finely shaded and subtle Beethoven's music sounds on the fortepiano, quickly calling into question cherished listening habits: Beethoven played with the richness of sound produced by a modern concert grand. It was with these pieces that Beethoven, who had initially created a sensation in Vienna as a pianist and improviser, presented himself in 1795 for the first time as a composer of piano sonatas as well. He dedicated them to Joseph Haydn, who had taught him in 1793 and was present at their first performance.

Even the dramatically forceful "Pathetique" sounded unexpectedly transparent and intriguing on the seemingly fragile fortepiano. Listeners familiar with portraits of Beethoven thought they saw a certain resemblance between the composer and his interpreter, Ronald Brautigam.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor Op. 2/1

Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major Op. 2/2

Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major Op. 2/3

Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor Op. 13, “Pathetique”

Performed by:

Robert Brautigam, fortepiano

Performed on September 23, 2009 at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and recorded by Deutsche Welle.

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The work became an instant success and was performed 29 times the following season. Unfortunately, neither Vigano's choreography nor the original libretto were preserved; Beethoven's Opus 43 is all that remains.

Under the direction of conductor Jonathan Nott, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie performed Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" in a special version containing spoken texts by Hanns Zischler. The concert in Bonn brought the 2008 Beethovenfest to a close.

It was originally intended to serve as the last movement of his Op. 130 quartet, but Beethoven later opted for a much shorter finale, leaving the Grosse Fuge to stand alone.

The Gewandhaus Quartet from Leipzig -- the world's oldest continuous string quartet -- performed the work in the chamber music hall next to Beethoven's birth house as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Not unlike "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller, which Beethoven later used in his Ninth Symphony, Tiedge's poem is an appeal to hope itself.

Bass Robert Holl and pianist Elena Bashkirova performed the song in the chamber music hall next to Beethoven's birth house as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The quintet is arranged in four movements, in the traditional quick-slow-scherzo-quick form.

Elena Bashkirova (piano), Guy Braunstein (violin), Michael Barenboim (violin), Amihai Grosz (viola) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the quintet as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Passionate and picturesque, "Francesca da Rimini" is characterized by the juxtaposition of the light of love and the darkness of the inferno.

Under the direction of Sergei Stadler, the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory performed the symphony as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The young orchestra's concert was made possible by the sponsorship of Deutsche Welle.

Born in 1980, Kuzma represents a new generation of Russian composers that are turning away from the avant-garde and searching for a new national identity.

The Caprice was commissioned by Deutsche Welle and premiered by violinist Nikita Borisoglebski and the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Under the direction of Sergei Stadler, the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory performed the symphony as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The young orchestra's concert was made possible by the sponsorship of Deutsche Welle.

Elena Bashkirova (piano), Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet), Guy Braunstein (violin) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the work as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet), Guy Braunstein (violin), Michael Barenboim (Violin), Amihai Grosz (Viola) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the quintet as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Carter's "Intermittences" for piano, written in 2005, tactfully parallels silence with sound.

It was performed by Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Evident throughout the work are many passages that could best be described as musical jokes. He began the work in the summer of 1812, shortly after completing the Seventh Symphony, and finished it in only four months.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

Nevertheless, it was written during one of the most difficult periods in Beethoven’s life. The Seventh Symphony was premiered in 1813, when the composer’s health and hearing were in decline. He would become completely deaf by 1814.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

The work was first performed in Vienna in 1808 under the direction of Beethoven himself and it achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards. The Fifth Symphony remains one of the most popular symphonies of all time.

The composer had admired the ruler, but when the news came that he had declared himself Emperor, Beethoven ripped up the title page where he had written the dedication and produced another, giving it the new title Sinfonia Eroica, or the Heroic Symphony.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

That Beethoven struggled with the idea of depicting these concepts in music can be seen in the fact that this is only one of four different overtures he wrote for the opera.

Performing is the German Chamber Philharmonic of Bremen, hailed by critics as "the best chamber orchestra in the world," under the baton of its principal conductor, Paavo Jarvi. They opened the 2008 Beethovenfest with the work at a gala concert on Aug. 29, 2008.

Hanns Eisler, the composer of the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany), based the work on texts by Bertold Brecht dealing with the war and Nazi terror. Impressive choruses and solo vocal sections drastically depict not only the suffering of Jews in the concentration camps but also the fate of soldiers abused as cannon fodder and sent back to the homeland in tin coffins.

HK Gruber, Austrian composer and the conductor of this performance, combined Eisler's "German Symphony" with music by Kurt Weill and one of his own orchestral works, entitled "Charivari." The name translates roughly as "Caterwauling." In the deconstruction of a polka melody, the work refers to the co-responsibility of Austrians for war and terror.

One of his earlier works, it has more Classical influence than his later concertos and resembles the music of Mozart.

It is performed here by Dmitri Demiashkin of Russia, who placed third in the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn on Dec. 13, 2007.

It is performed here by the winner of the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn, Yung Wook Yoo from South Korea. The winners' concert took place on Dec. 13, 2007, in the Beethovenhalle.

It is performed here by Keiko Hattori, who placed second in the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn on Dec. 13, 2007.

When premiering his work in April 1800, in Vienna, the press wrote, "Nobody will reprove such freedom and characteristics to a genius artist like Beethoven, but such an onset does not fit into the opening of a grand concert."

By tradition, the second movement is a lyrical contrast to the rhetoric-dynamical main movement. The Andante cantabile con moto expresses strong influences by precursors Mozart and Haydn.

The concert took place on Sept. 21, 2007, in the Beethoven Hall in Bonn, as part of the Beethovenfest. The Beethoven Orchestra played under the leadership of the Ukrainian conductor Roman Kofman.

The Free Association for Palestrina's Music gave the impetus for the composition of "Cantus supra librum for symphony orchestra," which was written in 1998. Three years later the work received the DW Composition Prize.

Its intuitive reactions and free forms draw a connection to medieval principles of improvisation, where the theme is passed between singers and slightly varied each time.

"My form of harmonization is based on the principles of the mathematical group theory," said the composer. "This allowed me to create different ensembles within the orchestra."

Sergei Pilyutikov was born in Uzin, Ukraine in 1965. Since completing his composition studies at the Academy of Charkov he has made his home in Kiev. There he founded Ensemble Ricochet, a group of young musicians specializing in contemporary music. Pilyutikov is the director of the International Youth Music Forum in Kiev.

The performance by the Ukrainian National Music Academy's symphony orchestra was part of the Beethovenfest Bonn and took place in the Beethovenhalle.

It is no coincidence that the protea, which has over 300 subspecies, was chosen as the national flower for a country that is characterized by diversity and has a long history of apartheid.

South African composer Hans Huyssen incorporated elements of traditional African music in his orchestral work "Proteus Variations," commissioned by the Deutsche Welle for the 2006 Beethoven Festival. Like his country, the piece is rich with variety and as colorful as a flower.

The South African National Youth Orchestra (SANYO), made of the country's most promising young musicians, were invited to the Beethoven Festival in Bonn for the world's first performance of Huyssen's "Proteus Variations."

Click on the link below to listen to a recording of the world premiere on September 9, 2006 in Bonn's Beethovenhalle.

Beethoven himself conducted the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, performed together with the Sixth Symphony ("Pastorale"), in Vienna on Dec. 22, 1808 -- which didn't arouse much interest. Since then, however, it has become one of classical music's most popular works.

Guided by its powerful opening motif, the C Minor Symphony conveys one of the fundamental elements of European culture by steering the listener "from night to light," from defeat to triumph.

The troop of 14- to 20-year-old musicians from South Africa performed Beethoven's legendary "Fate Symphony" at the Beethoven Festival and Deutsche Welle's Orchestra Campus with utmost professionalism -- and at a fierce tempo. The orchestra and its conductor, Conrad von Alphen, were met with enthusiastic applause from the predominantly youthful audience.

Listen to a live recording from the Beethoven Festival concert on Sept. 9, 2006 at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, C Minor, Op. 67, "Fate":

Allegro con brio

Andante con moto

Allegro

Allegro