page_title: Beethovenfest
section_title: The main focus of the festival
hierarchical_section_title: Beethovenfest / The main focus of the festival
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Beethovenhalle, Bonn – Innenansicht
context_page_description: The Beethovenfest is a festival of classical music in Bonn, Germany, dedicated mostly to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven who was born there. It dates back to 1845, when the composer's 75th anniversary of birth was celebrated with unveiling his monument and performing major works.
  First held irregularly, it is now an annual event, presenting around 70 concerts of international orchestras, ensembles and soloists in more than 20 venues in the town and the region.
context_section_description: 2005
  The festival took place from 8 September until 2 October. The theme was Liberté - the keyword of the enlightenment and battle cry of the French Revolution. After the Bohemian-Moravian focus in the previous year, the organizers emphasise this time on the relation between Beethoven and French music. In 64 events and an extensive schedule, the festival offered an insight of major importance, which had revolutionary ideas and changes on Beethoven and his music, but emphasised the creativity of the French composers such as Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
  2006
  The Beethovenfest took place in Bonn from 31 August until 1 October. The programm was themed Russia.
  2007
  The Beethovenfest Bonn took place in 2007 from 24 August to 23 September. The organizers dedicated it to the music nation of Great Britain. The festival was themed Joy. Ludwig van Beethoven's relation with Great Britain was based to a large extent on old Bonn relations: Ferdinand Ries, born in Bonn like Beethoven and one of the Beethoven's piano students in Vienna, went to London in 1813 as a celebrated pianist. Later he became one of the directors of the London Philharmonic Society, which in 1822 commissioned Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
  British ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields or the Philharmonia Orchestra of London performed in Bonn. Also the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten was part of the program. In addition, some discoveries were announced, such as a selection of Beethoven's Scottish, Irish and Welsh songs, which were rarely performed.
  On 2 September, the opera Freax by Moritz Eggert premiered at the festival.
  2008
  The Beethovenfest took place this year from 29 August to 28 September in Beethoven's birthplace. Power. Music. - this was the theme of the festival including 60 concerts based on Beethoven's political legacy, the ideological appropriation and exclusion of classical music composers and their works in the 20th century. The Beethoven's works, which he wrote with political and social connotations, were heard. On the one hand, these were juxtaposed with compositions that arose as a reaction to political currents; on the other hand, the 2008 edition of the Beethovenfest was dedicated to out-of-date composers whose music was produced, inter alia, in Theresienstadt and works that are in the context of exile and persecution.
  Top-class musicians such as Hélène Grimaud, Annette Dasch, Claudia Barainsky, Daniel Hope, Martin Grubinger and András Schiff, Max Raabe and The Princes performed, and from the acting industry Esther Schweins, Hannelore Elsner, Christoph Waltz, Ulrich Matthes and Hanns Zischler.
  In addition, top orchestras performed at the Beethovenfest Bonn 2008, such as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel conducting, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding, the National Orchestra of France, conducted by Kurt Masur, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, conductor Riccardo Chailly, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Paavo Järvi conducting, and the Bamberg Symphony conducted by Jonathan Nott.
  2009
  The Beethovenfest took place from 4 September to 3 October 2009. In the Light was the theme of the festival this year. "Beethoven's influence coined not only the music of the Romantic period, in which almost all musical genres are based on Beethoven's work," wrote the artistic director of the Beethovenfest, Ilona Schmiel. "Likewise, during Beethoven's lifetime, the soloist developed as an increasingly independent musical personality. This was the starting point for the artistic ideal of the Romantic period: the cult of the stars and genius that characterizes our music world today."
  In this context, the theme In the Light means that the focus is on artistic positions. The 2009 programm of the festival included artists such as Paavo Järvi and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Sol Gabetta, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel and Maurizio Pollini.
  2010
  The Beethovenfest took place in 2010 from 10 September to 9 October and was themed Open
caption: Concert in the Beethovenhalle during the Beethovenfest in 2007
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