Beethoven and the French Revolution

Course programme

Friday 2 September 2016

Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.

19:00 Dinner
20:30 Introduction, using Power Point with recorded and piano illustrations.
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Saturday 3 September 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Beethoven’s childhood in Bonn, his early compositions.
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Leaves dysfunctional family for Vienna,; studies with Haydn; composes “Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II.”
12:30 Free
13:00 Lunch
14:30 Free
16:00 Tea
16:30 Early stages of “Leonora” – the four overtures – his lost admiration for Napoleon; deafness.
18:30 Dinner
20:00 1814 final version of “Fidelio”; his poor health and inability to find a life-partner; the five piano concertos and the violin concerto.
21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Sunday 4 September 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Brother dies; nephew causes much sorrow. Examples from his symphonies, chamber music, sonatas.
10:30 Coffee
11:00 “Missa Solemnis”; dies in Vienna; hundreds crowd the streets.
12:30 Free
12:45 Lunch

The course will disperse after lunch.