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What about the vaccines? We're not done yet! Your opinion can help us make it better. We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. The year was to be a big Beethoven bash, in honor of the composer's th birthday. Then came the pandemic. Now the standout events in Ludwig van Beethoven's hometown are being rescheduled for From high-caliber symphony concerts to home recitals, dance and performance happenings, some projects saluting Ludwig van Beethoven were to make him omnipresent in his anniversary year.
Then coronavirus arrived and nearly wiped the entire schedule clean, including spectacular events such as the simultaneous performance of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Vienna Symphony , planned for May 15 — not to mention a double-barrel edition of Beethovenfest Bonn, in March and September The singular biographical Beethoven exhibition in Bonn's National Art and Exhibition center was closed down ahead of schedule, and the Beethoven Barge never pulled up anchor on its scheduled journey from Bonn to Vienna.
It was meant to symbolize the connection between the two cities where Ludwig van Beethoven spent his life and would have included many stops along the way. But in a ray of hope for concert-makers and concertgoers, the anniversary year is being extended with the intention of salvaging as many projects as possible. Beethoven's birthday falls around December 17, — the exact date is unknown — which made it logical for the supervisory board of the Beethoven Anniversary Society BTHVN decided to carry a large part of its budget over to the calendar year.
Depending on how the pandemic unfolds, the hope is that some special Beethoven events can even go ahead in the autumn of But we want to make as many of the original projects happen, so they are being rethought or postponed," explained Malte Boecker, director of the Beethoven House and artistic manager of the Anniversary Society, in an interview with DW. Now the organizers are hastily reshuffling their schedules, determining which events can be postponed or revised and which ones can go ahead in cyberspace.
In the middle of his illness, Beethoven sent a short piece of music to his doctor. The accompanying lyrics proclaim: Doctor, close the door against death, Notes will help him who is in need.
To put it another way, if the Heiliger Dankgesang is partly an uncomplicated prayer of thanks to the Almighty, and partly a meditation on sickness and health, it may also symbolise the immense power of music — notes — to keep people going in times of strife. Nor is Beethoven alone in using his music this way. After surviving a violent heart attack , Arnold Schoenberg may have been influenced by the movement in his string trio.
For her part, Padel has read In the Lydian Mode at funerals, and suggests that her poem and the soaring music it represents may help listeners find calmness in sorrow. Theurer agrees. Little wonder that the Heiliger Dankgesang has special resonance now — both Padel and Kapilow describe the deep impact the piece has on them during the current pandemic.
That is where the power of the music is. And if his brush with mortality inspired Beethoven to write one of the most poignant works in all of Western music, Kapilow wonders if our own deep isolation might spark similar ingenuity — whether artistically or in the struggle for social justice. If we could come out with anything as a country [like] what [Beethoven] came out with in the Heiliger Dankgesang , it might even have been worth it.
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And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Music Classical music. Beethoven The ultimate song of health after illness. Share using Email. By Andrea Valentino 20th July In , while recuperating from a near-death experience, Beethoven composed one of the most profound pieces of music in Western history. Light in a dark place The spring of was not good to Beethoven.
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