Marathon music event to mark Beethoven's 250th birthday in Birmingham
To celebrate Beethoven's upcoming 259th birthday, 32 pianists will perform all 32 piano sonatas with day-long performances.
The marathon event, which takes place at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Bradshaw Hall on February 18, will begin at 10am, finishing around 12ter at around 10pm.
And, because audiences can stay for one sonata or for all 32, audiences are being invited to ‘pay what you like’ on the door.
The whole feat is then repeated at Ulverston Festival, Lake District on March 27 and Chipping Campden Festival on May 4.
The 32 pianists are all students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, with performers hailing from Taiwan, China and Japan to Russia, Georgia and Israel and right across Europe, alongside those from the UK.
Professor Julian Lloyd Webber, principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire said, “Royal Birmingham Conservatoire wanted to celebrate the Beethoven anniversary in a unique and special way.
"Having 32 different student pianists play all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas certainly fits the bill while at the same time demonstrating the remarkable strength in depth of RBC’s Keyboard Department.”
The complete Beethoven sonatas cycle is an undertaking not often attempted and John Thwaites, head of keyboard studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, believes this may be a first for a UK Conservatoire.
"It’s an incredible journey, that not only puts such distance between start and finish, but takes in so many places along the way,” he says.
“Beethoven never repeats himself, there is a staggering degree of variety, and the depth and range of human understanding is comparable only to a figure like Shakespeare.”
“Audiences may come and go between sonatas, but we hope some hardy souls will stay all day and be rewarded with an exceptional and immersive experience to cherish.”
Following the final UK performance, 12 of the pianists, together with Professors John Thwaites and Pascal Nemirovski, will fly to Bolzano, Italy to give the cycle collaboratively, sharing the sonatas between themselves and students in Italy at the Bolzano Concert Hall.
For more information on the Birmingham event, click here.
