With Beethoven’s 250 years anniversary, a new symphony of music and art embraces Vienna for celebrating the great composer.
Concerts, but not only. For the important occasion, the Capital of Music counts a wide list of appointments. And the visual arts participate in the event. Exhibitions, iconic works and special itineraries that tell about the composer’s classicist sensitivity.
250 years of Beethoven, Vienna between music and visual art
The exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in particular puts Beethoven’s compositions in dialogue with the works of notable visual artists. The show will be on display next spring. Created in collaboration with the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, the unusual tribute delineates a blurred border between musical and visual arts. A relationship not of duality, but of completion, in which music empowers the impact of the artworks on the audience and vice versa.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum will feature graphic works by Francisco de Goya, Anselm Kiefer and Jorinde Voigt, as well as paintings by Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner. In addition, there will be remarkable sculptural artworks by Auguste Rodin, Rebecca Horn and John Baldessari. Also, there will be more modern settings such as the performative sculpture by Tino Sehgal and a video by Guido van der Werve, to mention a few.
The exhibit is thought to serve as a bridge. A bridge between past and present, fine art and music, Beethoven – composer and person – and visual artists.
“But freedom and progress are our true aim in the world of art, just as in the great creation at large …”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Inspired by Beethoven: from Klimt to Auchentaller
Particularly important is the “Beethoven Frieze” by Gustav Klimt. It is a 34-meter painting, now considered an icon of Viennese art. The monumental artwork represents the individual’s long journey in search of happiness. The story depicted tells about the dispute between the forces of good and evil acting on men, taking inspiration from Schopenhauer’s philosophy.
Beethoven’s 250 years anniversary also resonates at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Austrian National Library. Until April 4th the library will feature “Beethoven. World of the Man and Spark of the Gods“. The exhibition shows precious original scores, manuscripts and letters written by the composer. In particular, on display there is the score of the 9th symphony with the famous sentence “Joy, beautiful spark of the gods“. The manuscript is on loan from the Berlin State Library and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Beethoven’s 250 years are also celebrated at the Leopold Museum. The museum presents the first reconstruction of the work of Josef Maria Auchentaller inspired by Symphony No. 6. The artwork by the Austrian painter comes back to life again. The show, “Inspirational Beethoven, A Symphony in Pictures”, will be on the scene from May 30 to September 21. Above all, it does it by showing the world how deeply the influence of Beethoven’s music affected human lives and all kinds of arts.