Open Evening:
Beethoven's 200th Birthday: The Avant-Garde Celebrates Beethoven?

A somewhat irreverent, bicentennial birthday celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven with Charles Amirkhanian, pianist Julian White, and guests. After a rousing start with Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.” the “Overture to ‘Fidelio’” is heard, followed by a reading by George Cleve on the subject of Beethoven’s life and death. Amirkhanian then plays a number of the Maestro’s lighter works, including his “Trio in G Major” for three flutes, and the “Five Variations on ‘Rule Britannia.” Charles is then joined

by White who reads from a number of biographical sketches written by Beethoven’s contemporaries as well as some entries from the composer’s diary. This is followed by a discussion of Beethoven’s declining health with two purported medical experts, Drs. Gestalt and Schmutzig. Their credentials and command of medical terminology may be a bit tenuous yet this entertaining discussion does shine some light on the composer’s descent into alcoholism, deafness, and untimely death. Also included are two very beautiful compositions which honor the great composer on the two hundredth anniversary of his birth. We hear Mauricio Kagel’s “Ludwig Van” a William S. Burroughs like cut-up of the chamber works of Beethoven. This is followed by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Opus 1970,” an electronic tribute, incorporating recordings of Beethoven’s music.

Note This program received many complaints for its sacrilegious approach to the subject.