How would Beethoven’s birthday party look like?

“How would Beethoven’s musical birthday party look like? His patrons must have provided a place at a beautiful palace. His friends and pupils would gather together while the music of his close seniors and juniors playing in the background. This pleasant imagination is the source of my plan for an upcoming music festival,” said cellist Yang Sung-won.

A series of concerts under the title “Happy Birthday Ludwig!” will be held featuring the chamber music of those who interacted with Beethoven. The concert series planned by Professor Yang Sung-won of the College of Music of Yonsei University will be held four times from October 16 to 18 at the Yeulmaru Art Center in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, and three times from October 13 to 15 at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. The concerts to be held at the Yeulmaru Art Center is the fifth event of the Yeulmaru Chamber Music Festival that has been directed by Professor Yang. Those to be held in Seoul will be the closing events of the Beethoven’s times ‘17’20, a Beethoven’s chamber music series that has been showcased at the Kumho Art Hall since 2017.

“I have received many offers for events to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth for the last two years. However, I was a little concerned that the audience will be tired of his music,’ Professor Yang said. “Beethoven inherited the positive sides of his senior musicians and left a great influence on his juniors. I wanted to introduce his music from the perspective of his preceding and following generations.”

The concerts to be held at the Kumho Art Hall on October 13 and at the Yeulmaru Art Center on October 16 have the theme of Beethoven’s teachers. Quintet for Piano and Winds by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 63 “Sunrise” by Franz Joseph Haydn, and Beethoven’s variation of “See, the Conqu'ring Hero Comes!” from Judas Maccabaeus by George Frideric Handel will be played.

The theme of the concert to be scheduled at 2 p.m. on October 17 is Beethoven’s friends. Piano Sonatas by Beethoven’s beloved pupils Ferdinand Ries and Carl Czerny and Ries’s piano quartet variation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 will be played. At 7 p.m. on the same day, a concert with a theme of Beethoven’s patrons will be held. Those written by Beethoven for his patrons, including Piano Sonata No. 21 “Waldstein,” String Quartets “Rasumovsky 2,” and Piano Trio, Op. 97, will be showcased. At the Kumho Art Hall concert on October 14, Beethoven’s songs related to his friends and patrons will be both featured.


gustav@donga.com