Last year, on December 16, 2019, a large festive concert was held at the Bonn Opera to kick off the Beethoven anniversary year. On December 17, 2020, on Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th baptismal anniversary, the eventful celebratory year was to end with a performance of the 9th Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
Due to the Corona pandemic, this festive concert, now with a modified program, marks the climax of a Beethoven anniversary extended to 2021. But one thing remains: at the center of this concert with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Fifth Symphony is the idea that Ludwig van Beethoven raised his musical voice to express the confidence of peaceful and joyful human coexistence. His music is an appeal to humanity, grounded in the conviction that we are all united by a moral core of togetherness.
