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 » Whether in the pub, the street or the hall, we celebrate the Bonn Carnival «,  » With Pappnaas or Höötche, we all sit in a Böötche «,  » Jeck jeht net weg « … These have been the mottos of the Bonn Carnival in recent years. Just like everyone else in Bonn, the Beethoven Orchestra turns up the heat at the height of the fifth season: In the carnival concert, our viola section sometimes performs as the wolf and the seven little goats or Snow White and the seven dwarfs, the GMD comes in overalls and the high politicians express themselves musically. But what if the motto of the session is  » colorful «? Highlighting the diversity and different histories of the Jeckinnen and Jecken? We got help from the inventor of the Muslim TÜV and father of Fathiland, Fatih Çevikkollu – together with Dirk Kaftan, he will guide you through our 2025 carnival concerts! There’s almost nothing that can’t happen in this colorful whirlwind … Alaaf!

Elephants stomp, fish bubble and lions roar. They come together to celebrate the craziest time of the year – carnival! They gather in the arena, confetti flies and we sway along! And one or two surprise guests have also been announced. Stay tuned and come along!

» Olé! « A veritable Spanish-fever gripped cultural life in Europe in the second half of the 19th century: Spanish architecture, fashion, art and music electrified artists and audiences alike. This began in music with Spanish-coloured compositions by Mikhail Glinka around 1845 and continued until Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto almost 100 years later. The Yaron-Quartet combines genuine Spanish music from the 18th and 20th centuries with Debussy’s grandiose string quartet in its chamber concert at the Alter Bundesrat. Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga was called ‘the » Spanish Mozart«, perhaps also because he died tragically at a similarly early age, and Joaquín Turina further developed the impressionistic style of writing developed by Claude Debussy and combined it with elements of folk music and the tonal language of the 20th century. In the course of his career, Claude Debussy composed a number of works with a Spanish flavour; in his string quartet, Spanish as well as Far Eastern elements and even influences from ancient sacred music can be felt. The tremendous energy emanating from this quartet certainly matches the burning sun over the Alhambra, the vast plains of La Mancha and the intense sweetness of Spanish oranges …

The roads in Central Europe were long and uncomfortable back in the 18th century. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s reports of stagecoach journeys, which he would have spent with his face contorted in pain and his bottom up in the air, bear vivid witness to this … Nevertheless, even in the time before Instagram & Co, music could not be stopped – it made its way from one musical metropolis to another, there was a lively exchange not only of sheet music, but also of musicians travelling from Vienna to Prague, from Augsburg to Milan, or from Bonn to Paris and back. The seat of the Churcöllnian prince and his Rhine metropolis were a centre of attraction for virtuosos from near and far. High-ranking musicians from different generations played together in the fantastic chapel and their employer’s library was one of the best in the entire empire. Naturally, such a modern court knew what was in vogue in London and Rome – as well as in Paris. The pre-revolutionary capital of France was also one of the musical capitals of the continent and there were important impulses in all directions. We play music associated with the city on the Seine, which was recognised and performed in Bonn. Fortunately, the electoral archives were anything but a Rhenish clique: every copy of music, every score and every part was recorded down to the last detail and every performance was documented. So, off to Paris: Allons-y!

» A slender Greek maiden between two northern giants! « was Robert Schumann’s comment on Beethoven’s 4th Symphony. The Fourth: So is this one of the » little « symphonies, sandwiched between the Eroica and the » Symphony of Fate «? Well, yes: firstly, the Fourth is longer than the Fifth and secondly, the composer interrupted work on the Fifth in order to write the Fourth. It seemed more important to him at the time. And yet it is not important in any way. Hardly any other work by Beethoven displays so much sparkling, sometimes subtle humour with so much verve. There is so much to discover in this symphony, which begins like Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony almost 90 years later and whose conclusion sounds like the experimental laboratory of a mad professor in search of the perpetuum mobile.

A trip to the circus enchants, sparks the imagination and opens the way to distant cloud castles. And some of the artists whisk the audience away into a colourful and mysterious world with wondrous instruments. This is a story full of secrets, friendship, courage and lots of music!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called death » man’s best friend « and had no idea that he would die before he could complete his last great work. His Requiem is one of a long series of musical works that capture the church’s rite of farewell in sound, accompanying it with tones, giving it a form that goes beyond the text and reinforces its ritual character. Rituals of farewell, rituals of new beginnings: an attempt to find support and thereby gain new perspectives, to make it possible to live on in the face of death and with death. We are trying to gain new perspectives on Mozart’s Requiem, whose performances have become part of concert rites. To this end, we will interrupt Mozart’s unfinished work at selected points and illuminate the essential questions behind the work in words and sound. Hardly any composer has found a wider range of expression between deep, personal despair and the brightest light for the ancient texts!

Autumn is approaching and with it the time when the mice go in search of food for the cold months. But Frederick isn’t thinking about that at all! He prefers to collect colours, music and stories. Let’s find out together how they can help him through the winter and inspire his friends!

Le mystère des voix bulgares: this was the name of a legendary record (or rather a series of records) that electrified music fans all over the world: rough, rubbing, flattering, incredibly rhythmic choral sounds that had never been heard before! Or had they? Béla Bartók, the great Hungarian folk music researcher, had already poured them into his string quartet in the 1930s, and Bulgarian ensembles and choirs had never stopped cultivating the country’s musical traditions. East and West, church sounds and fast-paced village bands meet here. The quartet around our violinist with Bulgarian roots, Maria Geißler, embarks on a virtuoso and sensuous search for traces.

When we hear the name Beethoven, huge symphonic clouds and fantastic piano virtuosity pile up in front of us. But we also find the latter in Beethoven’s stage works. For six months, selected school classes work with Beethoven’s overtures, which subtly hint at the events to come on stage. In the final concert, the pupils and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn show what they have created artistically with artists, music teachers and their teachers.