News from the Committee
18.12.2020
A message from RWVI President Rainer Fineske about Beethoven
Great celebrations were planned all over the world to honour him, all of which had to fall victim to the Corona Pandemic. This was also the case with our international Richard Wagner Congress in Bonn, the birthplace of the musical genius, which wanted to hold and honour its composer with special care with the annual Beethoven Festival.
For this, thanks to the many now great technical possibilities of the digital world, there were and are extensive possibilities of live streaming or TV broadcasts that can at least give us a feeling of being there.
For us as a large worldwide community of Wagner lovers, Ludwig van Beethoven plays a very central and important role. For without Beethoven, Richard Wagner and his great musical works, as we know and enjoy them today, would not exist in this form. From his earliest youth, Richard Wagner not only took his cue from Beethoven's work, but it also had a correspondingly strong influence on him throughout his compositional achievements, right up to Parsifal.
Ludwig van Betthoven was baptised in Bonn on 17 December 1770, the date is confirmed by the entry in the baptismal register, and we can assume that he was certainly born no more than a day or two earlier, probably on 16 December 1770. This is because the infant mortality rate at the time was about 25%. So, if possible, an infant should not leave the earth again without being baptised. At the time, no one would have thought that the infant would one day become the most famous composer of all time. In the course of his musical career, he led Viennese Classicism to its highest perfection and paved the way for the Romantic composers who followed. His enduring immense musical legacy is among the most played and performed works in the musical world.
The titan of the symphonic world, as Beethoven is also often described, has such a strong presence and presence that we may continue to celebrate and commemorate him well into the year 2021 on his 250th birthday, for he was only born at the end of the year 1770 and we are therefore not at the end but only at the beginning of his anniversary.
Rainer Fineske | President
For this, thanks to the many now great technical possibilities of the digital world, there were and are extensive possibilities of live streaming or TV broadcasts that can at least give us a feeling of being there.
For us as a large worldwide community of Wagner lovers, Ludwig van Beethoven plays a very central and important role. For without Beethoven, Richard Wagner and his great musical works, as we know and enjoy them today, would not exist in this form. From his earliest youth, Richard Wagner not only took his cue from Beethoven's work, but it also had a correspondingly strong influence on him throughout his compositional achievements, right up to Parsifal.
Ludwig van Betthoven was baptised in Bonn on 17 December 1770, the date is confirmed by the entry in the baptismal register, and we can assume that he was certainly born no more than a day or two earlier, probably on 16 December 1770. This is because the infant mortality rate at the time was about 25%. So, if possible, an infant should not leave the earth again without being baptised. At the time, no one would have thought that the infant would one day become the most famous composer of all time. In the course of his musical career, he led Viennese Classicism to its highest perfection and paved the way for the Romantic composers who followed. His enduring immense musical legacy is among the most played and performed works in the musical world.
The titan of the symphonic world, as Beethoven is also often described, has such a strong presence and presence that we may continue to celebrate and commemorate him well into the year 2021 on his 250th birthday, for he was only born at the end of the year 1770 and we are therefore not at the end but only at the beginning of his anniversary.
Rainer Fineske | President