Marking the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, we explore the composer’s enduring and contested legacy.
'Beethoven is everywhere: his music features heavily in concerts, television and commercials; his defiant stance has shaped ideas about how an artist should behave. Why then bother to celebrate him further, by marking the 200th anniversary of his death? Because there is much more to Beethoven than the scowl and the Ode to Joy, as the wide-ranging series of concerts and events hosted by the Schwarzman Centre illustrates.
Part of the reason for Beethoven’s enduring reputation is that his music has provoked so many different interpretations, from arrangements (such as Britten Sinfonia playing the string quartet Op. 131) to new compositions (Sonia Allori’s project). Works that are familiar today were not necessarily as popular during his lifetime and vice versa, as will be discussed at February’s international symposium, featuring workshops with ‘historically informed’ ensembles The London Haydn Quartet and the Rautio Piano Trio, as well as players from the Oxford Philharmonic.
What Beethoven’s music can reveal about our relationship with the natural environment is explored by the Orchestra of the Earth. Beethoven’s life and works continue to prompt questions, in other words. As we will investigate in a roundtable on musician anniversaries in the Faculty of Music on Thursday 25 February, asking what we are celebrating when we celebrate an anniversary of Beethoven can, in turn, bring our own time into focus.'
Professor Laura Tunbridge, Heather Professor of Music and Professorial Fellow, Wadham College
