Friends!

Happy New Year and Happy Beethoven Year to you!

2020 is not just a new year and the beginning of a new decade, but the 250th anniversary of his birth! What a special year! Even without any extraordinary occasion he is the most played composer, but this year we will be witnessing an uninterrupted celebration all over our beautiful home, Planet Earth!

The Beethoven 2020 celebration has its own logo, created by the Beethoven House in Bonn. Watch this short video about this new and trendy logo.

Today, Beethoven is as fresh and valid as he ever was. Humanity faces so many difficulties in this century, that his spirit and his music, the ideas he communicated through music are more important today than ever!

First of all, he loved nature. Nothing made him more happy, relaxed than a hike in the hills and mountains surrounding Vienna. He went out every day, regardless the weather. Bringing his notebook in his pocket, he waved his hands conducing his invisible orchestra, making notes of new ideas. Today, he would be devastated to see the level of destruction humans cause on the environment! He would hold the hands of Greta Thunberg and march against this irresponsibility we live in!

His love for nature inspired the Beethoven Pastoral Project an NGO inviting artists and everyone to join the efforts to save Earth. The organization calls upon artists to make their Pastoral project, using the theme and inspiration from Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, which he wrote to and about nature.

How about the pursue of freedom and brotherhood? Are these ideas needed today? More than ever! In his Ninth Symphony he put this universal human longing and inspiration into music. “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” as we sing in the last movement of the Big Nine, “All people become brothers”. His music is played all over the world, loved all over the world, it goes beyond any barriers and unites us. Watch this trailer of a great documentary about the power of the Ninth Symphony on all continents!

We can learn from him on a personal level, too! His dedication to his craft was exemplary! Contrary to Mozart, who just wrote out (his own words!) the score from his mind, Beethoven struggled. His notes, his scores are full of trial and error. Even the famous fate motif in the Fifth Symphony had many versions, before he finally perfected the one. Yet, he wrote music not for tomorrow, not for the taste of the time, but for eternity!

How about obstacles in your life? Challenges you face right now? Impossible to win? Well, how about a music composer, who lived in the most important and most competitive musical city of the time, who for a period had to work parallel with the likes of Haydn and Mozart, and who went deaf in his thirties? Yet, not only did he continue writing the most beautiful and important musical compositions, but created a whole new era of music: the romantic era! He turned his disadvantage to an advantage! Not being able to hear his music, he had to pay extra attention to every note he put on the score and at the same time he could let his inner imagination go completely free.

Beethoven is an inspiration on many levels. Both on issues we face together as humanity and on deeply personal levels, as well. This year Popular Beethoven Magazine will continue its journey discovering this great man, who was just what we all are: a mix of talents, weaknesses and imperfections, and on a good day – a great human being!

Happy Beethoven Year!

#BTHVN2020