［CITY］
Bonn … Germany
［SCHEDULE］
2026：9.3 … 10.3
To the festival site ▷
Bonn, the capital city of West Germany, was the town of Beethoven who spent 22 years old. The origin of the music festival is a three-day music festival held in 1845, commemorating his birth 75th anniversary.
After that, after the twists and turns, the music festival has been regularly held since 1974. Festival is held every three years mainly by the city, and big names such as Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein appear one after another.
But in 1995 it came to a halt of discontinuation. The current music festival was started again in 1998 by a non-profit limited company. Every September, nearly 70 concerts are held at 20 venues such as Beethoven Halle.
The festival has been gradually expanding since Wieland Wagner’s daughter Nike Wagner was appointed president of the festival in 2014. A large-scale renovation of Beethoven Halle is also emerging toward 2020, the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, of course, is the protagonist of the music festival. However, there are also many guest performances by orchestras and artists.
In 2009, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen led by Paavo Järvi performed as a guest. They performed a four-night Beethoven symphony concert, which was broadcast on the Internet at the same time as the radio broadcast. That attracted attention as a “new form” of live broadcasting.
