Keeping Beethoven's Flame Alight Rather Than Worshipping His Ashes!

The #bebeethoven project was initiated by PODIUM Esslingen to mark the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth and is providing an opportunity for 12 musicians to follow Beethoven's example by engaging with the key issues influencing the future of art music.

As genres go, classical music isn't actually a coherent genre at all, but a curious collective term that refers to all art music from the 14th century to the present day. So if classical music has an image problem, that is something it has brought upon itself—somehow or other, a situation has arisen that is causing this inexhaustible wealth of music to appear boring and old-fashioned. Classical music wasn't created with either young or old people in mind. It simply exists. It is entirely down to the musicians what they do with it and which members of their audience they manage to inspire. The first course of action should be to dispense with the term classical altogether. Referring to music as classical places everyone from Beethoven to Claudio Monteverdi, along with all contemporary art music, in the same unfortunate pigeonhole.

In the world of classical music, no one can afford to ignore Beethoven. While it is often idiosyncratic, the realm of sound and expression that he developed is an extremely precious asset. But it is also true that sooner or later, and for reasons that are not down to Beethoven himself, all of the fuss surrounding this idealized figure starts to get on people's nerves. In fact, the entire cliché that surrounds Beethoven as a composer, and was only created after his death, often gets in the way and prevents people from appreciating not only the man and his music, but also his radical approaches.

Outstanding musicians don't grow on trees and certainly can't be cultivated in a petri dish. They are actually shaped and molded by their environment and by the chances and opportunities that come their way. This was true of Beethoven and is also true of the generation of musicians that exists today. That is the reason why PODIUM Esslingen wanted to set up an incubator for original ideas, talented newcomers, and innovative projects. The purpose of the incubator is not to promote musicians who have already built up a strong track record and have already arrived, but to nurture promising young creatives at that ideal stage in their lives, when the freedom that the incubator provides will unleash the maximum potential they have to offer.

The incubator referred to above is being offered by PODIUM Esslingen as part of its #bebeethoven fellowship program. In addition to having developed an original approach that they apply to their artistic endeavors, another of the criteria used to select the 12 musicians taking part in the fellowship program is something that could be described as a Beethoven-like imperative—an absolute determination to go their own way, come what may.

To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, the project is intended to shine a spotlight on some of the avenues that may lead to the future of music. A fascinating collection of the most diverse approaches that are enabling musicians to rethink classical and contemporary art music in an innovative way. The intention is to introduce audiences to new musical realms, to arouse their curiosity, and to show them that classical music—which, as mentioned above, is a very misleading term—is far from being dead, but is a living tradition that is still developing today in a whole host of contemporary directions. Keeping Beethoven's flame alight rather than worshipping his ashes! Musicians shouldn't hide behind Beethoven and his masterworks, but must fulfil their destiny to shape the musical world of today. That, in essence, forms the impetus that the #bebeethoven project sets out to provide.