In 2020 – as you are probably already aware – it will be 250 years since Ludwig van Beethoven was born. The Concertzender will celebrate this in a big way with the ambitious plan to broadcast all his music at least once during the year.
It promises to be a rich mix of genres because it has been decided not to work chronologically through the works but per composition type. For example, orchestral works alternate with songs, piano sonatas with canons or violin sonatas with folk song arrangements.
Beethoven every weekday
From January 1, Beethoven can be heard every week from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 11:00 CET under the title “Long live Beethoven!”. A selection of Beethoven’s works are broadcast every week. From Tuesday to Friday these are complete works without too much spoken word, on Monday a Dutch expert in a specific genre is asked about his or her affinity with Beethoven’s music.
Experts
The names of some of the experts who have already agreed to take part: Willem Brons, Paul Korenhof, Geoffrey Madge, Han de Vries, Hannes Minnaar, Maarten Koningsberger, Elly Ameling, Rien de Reede.
Podium Witteman
On the 26 January this popular television series will include an item about the project.
Aukelien van Hoytema, co-editor of the project, will then talk about one aspect of Beethoven: his often sad and intense love life. That love life was of course a major inspiration for his music. Pianist Daria van den Bercken will play the final part of Beethoven’s “Sturm” sonata to demonstrate the intense feelings of the composer.
Background
Ludwig van Beethoven is considered a major innovator in the development of music. He was originally completely rooted in the Viennese classical tradition, but detached himself from it in his later works. Bolder harmonies and experiments with the number of parts within works characterise the compositions of Beethoven in his later years. This is an important reason for the lasting influence that he has had on the subsequent development of music.
Beethoven was probably born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, but this date is uncertain: no document has been found that confirms this. The only thing we know for certain is that he was baptised on December 17.
His death in 1827 has been documented. That was on March 26 in Vienna, the centre of music at that time and a city to which he had moved in 1792, like so many before him.
Project team
The Beethoven project is edited by Aukelien van Hoytema and Robbert Jan de Neeve.
Production: Aukelien van Hoytema, Robbert Jan de Neeve, Henk Hylkema and Sem de Jongh.
Presentation: Pauline Verburg, Stef Lokin, Rahul Gandolahage and Evert Jan Nagtegaal.
Technical realisation: Aart Veerman, Marco Wensveen, Jan from the Broek and Walter Belaert.
