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Beethovenfest 2009

October 30, 2009

Does Beethoven rock? Listen to excerpts of Beethoven's Symphony no. 7, performed by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Jarvi, and decide for yourself.

https://p.dw.com/p/JlrD
Paavo Jarvi
Image: Sheila Rock

"Beethoven Strikes Back!" wrote one newspaper critic after the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Jarvi performed in New York. A critic in Tokyo called it "The best Beethoven around."

After five years as Orchestra in Residence at the Beethovenfest, expectations were high in the 2009 season for this orchestra and conductor, performing the complete symphony cycle in the city of Beethoven's birth. However, they rose to the occasion and received standing ovations at each of the four concerts in the series.

On the subject of expectations, Jarvi says, "Of course we start now from a much higher level, and the work that we do now in the rehearsal before the cycle is entirely different than it was ten years ago. But our expectations are also higher. Our pressure to really live up to our own expectations is high. Not to mention everybody else's expectations."

This may be music from the year 1812, but in its own way, it "rocks."

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