:: The Beethoven Festival 2008

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

The Beethoven Festival comes to the Adelaide Festival Theatre. Over three extraordinary nights from July 24-26, the internationally acclaimed Australian Youth Orchestra, comprising of seventy-nine of Australia’s finest young musicians, will bring the full power and might of Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concertos to Adelaide’s Festival Theatre.

Under the baton of distinguished America conductor, John Nelson, the orchestra will perform some of Beethoven’s most powerful symphonies including Symphony No.3 Eroica and his Piano Concerto No.5 Emperor. The orchestra will be joined by Herbert Schuch as soloist on all three nights.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director, Douglas Gautier, said, “These works were forged out of great intellectual struggle and superhuman intensity. They resound with passion, celebration and innovation. Everyone will recognise at least one theme from these great works.”

The Beethoven Festival is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear Australia’s most exciting young musicians perform great works that are the core of western music’s cultural achievement.

Founded in 1948, Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) has attained an international reputation for its innovative and comprehensive training organisations. The organisation is most widely known through its flagship ensemble, the Australian Youth Orchestra, which regularly tours internationally and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007 with a seventh European tour, including performances in France, Germany and The Netherlands. The orchestra comprises musicians aged 25 years and under, from all across Australia.

Conductor John Nelson is one of the world’s most versatile and accomplished conductors. Presently he is Music Director of L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and has conducted orchestras the world over, including the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and in Europe with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the orchestras of Cologne, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Oslo and Stockholm.

Talented European soloist Herbert Schuch is one of the most talented pianists of his generation, having won three international piano competitions in a single year, the Casagrande Competition in Italy, the London International Piano Competition and the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna.

Born in Bonn, Germany, Ludwig van Beethoven was an important figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music and remains one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time. Beethoven suffered from gradual hearing loss beginning in his twenties. He nonetheless continued to compose masterpieces and to conduct and perform, even after he was completely deaf. It is this genius that makes Beethoven’s work all the more extraordinary.

Event details:
The Beethoven Festival
Festival Theatre
July 24-26 at 8.00pm
Bookings - BASS or phone 131 246.