BEETHOVEN’S LAST words were “Clap your hands my friends, the comedy is over,” but almost 200 years after his death, the applause for his magnificent music has stopped.
Music For Galway will host a special series of events celebrating the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven on Friday February 11 and Saturday 12 in NUI, Galway and in association with the university’s arts festival Múscailt.
The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet will perform the German master’s Late Quartets while the Huston School of Film and Digital Media will show a film about Beethoven.
The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet will perform String Quartets Op 127 and Op 130 with Grosse Fuge in NUIG’s Aula Maxima on Friday 11 at 8pm. On Saturday at 8pm in the same location they will perform String Quartets Op 131, Op 132, and Op 135.
These works were composed when Beethoven was profoundly deaf and very ill. Richard Wagner said of the introduction to String Quartet Op. 131: “It is a prayer of repentance, a consulting with God in the belief in the eternally good.”
As part of Music for Galway’s outreach programme, The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet will present and discuss excerpts from various string quartets for the students of Maoin Cheoil na Gallimhe on Saturday at 11am.
On Saturday at 2pm the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, NUI Galway (located close to the Fisheries Field ) will screen Phil Grabsky’s documentary film In Search of Beethoven.
The film takes a comprehensive look at the composer’s life through his musical output, documenting each piece of music chronologically and marrying it to Beethoven’s biography and letters. Performers and interviewees include Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax. Admission is by concert ticket.
Tickets are €20/16/6 (a weekend ticket is €36/30 ) from Music for Galway (091 - 705962, [email protected] ), Opus II the Cornstore, or www.tht.ie
