“Classical music organizations around the world began a major anniversary celebration this fall for Ludwig van Beethoven, born almost 250 years ago in December 1770,” writes Andrea Moore in Monday’s (12/30) Chicago Tribune. “Classical music culture, as others, seems unable to resist anniversary blowouts: Mozart’s 250th birth year in 2006 was exhaustively celebrated, as was the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in 2000. The problem with these festivities is that the composers being celebrated do not otherwise lack performances—far from it…. A worthier way to honor these composers might be something more drastic: a cooperative, worldwide, yearlong moratorium on live performances of their music…. Letting Beethoven’s music fall silent for the duration of his 250th anniversary year might give us a new way into hearing it live again. I’d further propose that we fill the Beethoven-sized hole in our repertoire with new music…. With Beethoven’s nine symphonies at the core of the orchestral repertoire, what about a bold commissioning project? It could aim to produce nine new symphonies, from the broadest range of composers imaginable. And five new piano concertos, 16 new string quartets, 32 sonatas—not as responses to the Beethoven works, but as a way to hear these genres utterly reimagined.”
Read Ben Finane’s article evaluating the relevance of Beethoven today in the current issue of Symphony magazine.
In photo: Ernst Julius Hähnel’s statue of Beethoven in the composer’s hometown of Bonn, Germany
