BTHVN2020

'Beethoven would be making electronic music today'

India meets Europe at the Beethovenfest's Campus Project 2018: Composers Rakesh Chaurasia and Bernhard Schimpelsberger

Anastassia Boutsko

The truth about Beethoven's 'symphony of fate'

Music researchers have long wondered — is fate really knocking on the door at the start of Beethoven's Fifth?

Gaby Reucher

Beethovenfest: Composers, their fates, their music

Quiet opening to the Beethovenfest

Beethovenfest wraps up

Nike Wagner: 'We stand for Enlightenment values'

Beethovenfest director Nike Wagner talks about the implications of the festival motto "Schicksal" (Fate).

Rick Fulker

A fateful year for Beethovenfest

How Beethoven incites climate activism

In the "Beethoven Pastoral Project", the composer is placed in the service of climate protection.

Rick Fulker

More than just a walk in the park: Beethoven's Pastoral

The Beethovenfest 2017

Beethoven anniversary page

Everything about the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, whose 250th birthday will be celebrated in 2020.

Highlights of the Beethoven anniversary year

A new attraction for Beethoven pilgrims planned in Bonn

Beethoven: Made in the Rhineland

Even a singular genius like Ludwig van Beethoven didn't come out of the blue.

Rick Fulker

What makes Beethoven so special?

Beethoven: what is all the fuss about? Deutsche Welle investigates.

Miriam Webber

From revolutionary to pop idol

Charistimatic, but tempermental

A serious look, slightly grim face and a lion's mane: images of Ludwig van Beethoven have imprinted themselves into the collective imagination arguably moreso than any other composer. Yet, it's mainly the late portraits that have shaped today's notions of the revolutionary, combative and difficult artist.

From revolutionary to pop idol

A shooting star in Vienna

Forceful, yet with a hint of smile, a young Beethoven looks out at the viewer in this painting from 1803. By that time, he had already attracted some of the most influential music patrons of the Viennese aristocracy.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Visiting the prince

Prince Carl von Lichnowsky was one of Beethoven's first supporters, with whom he later had a falling-out. In this picture by Julius Schmid from 1900, "Beethoven plays at Lichnowsky," the dispute between the prince and the composer seems to be already underway.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Proud and confident

Beethoven not only met Goethe in Teplitz, Bohemia, in 1812, but a legendary and scandalous snub also took place: While the poet bowed reverently before the prince, composer Beethoven walked right by him with his head held high. That, at least, is the way Carl Rohling imagined the revolutionary scene.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Revolutionary composer

Beethoven was not only enthused by the ideas of the French Revolution, but also by new methods of composition. Here, in this image by Willibrord Joseph Mähler from 1804, he seems to be giving expression to them with a wide, sweeping gesture.

From revolutionary to pop idol

The original

There's no doubt that Beethoven was one of the most popular artists of his time - which the countless portraits of him demonstrate. One of the best known is this image created by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1820.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Going pop

Compared to other artists, Stieler portrayed Beethoven less realistically, but instead, in a more idealized fashion. Later, the painting was used as a template for engravings in which the contours became even more pronounced. It is surely no coincidence that Andy Warhol chose this image for his own renditions.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Sprayed on

Bonn - Beethoven's birthplace - is also home to several variations of Stieler's image: as a stone sculpture in front of the Beethoven Hall, sometimes - especially during the Beethovenfest in September - as a painting on the pavement, or as graffiti on a wall - such as here near the Beethoven House, where the composer was born.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Wrestling with each note

The fact that Beethoven did not make it easy on himself while composing was something the music world learned only after his death in 1827. Descriptions by his contemporaries who saw him at work surely influenced the romantic image of the maestro, who worked relentlessly and uncompromisingly in search of musical perfection.

From revolutionary to pop idol

Genius and mania

Contemporaries marveled at Beethoven's works of genius. Subsequent generations of composers, however, were intimidated by them - and afraid they could not live up to Beethoven's standard. This image by Hermann Torggler from 1902 shows the composer in almost demonic fashion - created based on the composer's death mask.

From revolutionary to pop idol

The pop idol

Hardly a composer today is as famous the world over as Ludwig van Beethoven - thanks in no small part to his piano piece "Für Elise." His life has been rendered in film several times, and has even been turned into cartoons and comics.

10 things you didn't know about Beethoven

The many women in Beethoven's life

Beethoven's social network

Roll over, Beethoven?

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

Pianist Igor Levit: Music is 'artistic anarchism'

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

How Ukraine is experiencing a cultural rebirth

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

'With young musicians, magic can happen'

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

'Young people put their hearts into performing'

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

Boris Berezovsky: 'Beethoven is as powerful as the sun'

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

Zulan: 'Every true Mongolian is a musician'

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

Nelsons on Beethoven

Interviews from the Beethovenfest

Steve Reich: 'Composers reflect their time and place'

From Bayreuth to Bonn

Grab your tux