• Winner of the 10th International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn, piano
• Götz Alsmann, speaker
• Beethoven Orchestra Bonn
• Holly Hyun Choe, conductor

Program:

• Ludwig van Beethoven
  A Concerto for piano and orchestra
• Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, op. 43
  With texts by Gerard McBurney and pictures by Hillary Leben

18:15: Concert introduction with Tilmann Böttcher on stage

»I would like to tell you a story!« This is how Götz Alsmann could begin when, together with Ludwig van Beethoven, he brings one of the great myths of mankind to the stage: it’s about the Titan Prometheus, who steals fire from Zeus, the father of the gods, and breathes life into a few pathetic and poorly formed lumps of clay … voilà: the first human couple! When Emmanuel Schikaneder, Mozart’s librettist and grandiose folk actor of his time, attended the premiere of the ballet Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus shortly after 1800, to which the young Beethoven had contributed the music, he was thrilled: this was great entertainment! Profound, colorful, colorful – and very, very funny! Unfortunately, the ballet as such has not survived and the sources are poor … Wait: Beethoven – and funny? Why not! Gerard McBurney has attempted to resurrect the ballet’s feather-light atmosphere with a new text, thus giving Beethoven’s enchanting and elegant music its due. The overture is the only part of the entire ballet that has survived in the repertoire, and the content of the Prometheus music, when torn from its theatrical context, is difficult for us to comprehend today. Götz Alsmann takes on the text and tells us about Prometheus‘ successes and misfortunes, about the obvious humanity of the gods and about what now holds the world together at its core. To the first version of this version, created in the first Lockdown for Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and English jack-of-all-trades and superstar Stephen Fry, American cartoonist Hillary Leben contributed lovingly whimsical illustrations that show us the, oh, so dignified world of the gods in a new light. Gerard McBurney is a British composer, dramaturge and music educator who for years created the »Children’s Concerts for Adults« for Pierre Boulez in Chicago: Beyond the Score was the name of the legendary, multimedia series of performances that delighted novices* and experts alike. He is also responsible for the concert project X-Rayed, which we will stage in May.