Beethoven in the context of the present

For the past three years, Ensemble Resonanz has been exploring the most pressing issues of our time through Beethoven’s symphonies. The journey began in 2024 with »Euroica« and the Third Symphony, and the programme for 2025 featured Symphony No. 6. The series concludes in 2026 with the Fifth Symphony, set against West African kora music. Egbert Hiller presents the cycle.

Does Beethoven still have much to say to us beyond the sounds of his music? This question resonates throughout the three-year concert cycle »Pride & Pain«, designed by the Ensemble Resonanz (conductor: Riccardo Minasi) in collaboration with the Beethovenfest Bonn. The answer is an emphatic ›yes‹, particularly when Beethoven’s symphonies are related to the pressing issues and afflictions of present-day Europe.

The composer himself was by no means apolitical, critically observing the social developments of his time. He pursued ideals such as Liberté, égalité, fraternité (freedom, equality and solidarity), which remain highly relevant and are under considerable pressure once again, even in Europe.

In 2024, the Ensemble Resonanz linked Symphony No. 3 to the treatment of refugees by European states, particularly those in the Mediterranean region. Beethoven conceived of his »Sinfonia Eroica« as a plea for human rights in the spirit of the French Revolution. During the concert, the ensemble paired the music with a journalistic report from the Sea Watch 3 rescue ship. This led to a radical rethinking of familiar perspectives.

»As people who are proud of our values, we must not allow the complexity of the challenge to overwhelm us when people seeking protection drown in the Mediterranean.«
– Ensemble Resonanz

At this year’s Beethovenfest, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the »Pastoral«, took centre stage against the backdrop of environmental destruction and the climate crisis. However:

»The connections between the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity are complex. The measures taken by politicians are also hesitant. Is it appropriate to include Beethoven’s ›Pastoral‹ in the programme in order to establish a meaningful connection to the destruction of nature today? No! The ›Pastoral‹ romanticises nature, presenting it as an idealised construct. The reality of the man-made climate crisis is absent. It is precisely this absence that makes us feel it! 
– Clemens K. Thomas, dramaturge of the Ensemble Resonanz

Contrasted with, and even interwoven into, the »Pastoral« symphony is Kristine Tjøgersen’s 2019 Concerto for Piano, Live Camera and Chamber Orchestra – an acoustically and visually immensely multifaceted work in which the Norwegian composer processed previously recorded sounds of nature. However, she was not interested in merely imitating nature, but in exploring a wide range of associations.

The series concludes in 2026 with Beethoven’s Fifth. This time, the concept presents the symphony in its unadulterated form alongside a second half of the concert, in which the musical worlds of Ensemble Resonanz and the kora soloist and singer Momi Maiga intertwine. Pure Beethoven alongside crossover, a static stage alongside spatial choreography and audience interaction: with the help of dramaturg Anselm Dalferth, Beethoven is placed in a global context. The aim is to facilitate encounters between different homes.

»Sometimes these encounters immediately give rise to something shared; at other times, the contact highlights differences, which can be no less inspiring. For everyone brings something (from their personal home and their musical home) to the encounter – and these contributions alone are anything but unambiguous or homogeneous; they draw on traditions, places of origin, curiosity, experience and a spirit of adventure.«
– Anselm Dalferth, dramaturg