Beethoven 7

×

Expand

Image courtesy of Liceu

The musical dream of a new, free world is transformed into dance and dialogue with electronic sounds and with the Liceu Orchestra performing live for one of the most innovative companies on the European dance scene.

The year 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, and the Franco-German television channel ARTE set out to perform and record the composer’s nine symphonies in nine different European cities. One of these cities was Delphi, where the channel invited choreographer Sasha Waltz and her company to create a choreography based on the music of Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op 92.

Beethoven composed the symphony in 1811, when he was starting to go deaf. It was a time of wars of liberation, between the French Revolution and the Restoration. In this context, through music that sought the spiritual transformation of the audience, Beethoven asked himself whether or not people were truly free. These questions led to music that expresses the ideal of artistic freedom.

This dream translated into sound, this vision of a freer world that the music hints at is the foundation of Sasha Waltz’s choreographic creation, which draws on the ideas of revolution and a new world and amplifies them, while highlighting the relationship between music and the sounds of today's world.  To stage the piece, Sasha Waltz turned to Diego Noguera, a Chilean composer living in Berlin and working on experimental electronic pieces. Here, he will use his music to enter into dialogue with Beethoven’s creation. The result will be performed by the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1847 and is in fact the oldest orchestra in the Spanish State. Since 2012, it has been under the direction of maestro Josep Pons.

For more events check our online events calendar.