sinfoniekonzert02

For pianist Lars Vogt, Beethoven was more successful than any other composer at “making the reality of existence and the world beyond tangible, far from the banality of everyday life” with his music. Vogt confirms that in his playing, his distinctive Beethoven sound, which always presents the seemingly familiar in a new light. At the Cologne Philharmonie he will perform the Third Piano Concerto, which is regarded as evidence of the final stylistic emancipation of the 33-year-old Beethoven. Vogt actually reveals the new in the old of opus 37, as Die Welt wrote after a performance of this concerto: “We listened closely and were finally conscious of everything that normally remains hidden between the notes.”

Hans-Werner Henze also felt deep admiration for this “Prometheus of music”. His Seventh Symphony is nothing short of a tribute to the tradition of the genre which was decisively influenced by Beethoven. The classical structure of the work, which was premiered in 1984, and its use of musical quotations from every epoch are amazing. For Henze, however, inherited and traditional elements were by no means obsolete but offered him great potential to compose with complete “naturalness” and “genuineness”, as he put it. On the podium for this concert is Markus Stenz, who has been closely associated with the work of Hans Werner Henze since the beginning of his career and has conducted the premieres of many of Henze’s works. It will be interesting to see which work Markus Stenz will present during Act 3 to forge a link between Beethoven and Henze.