Following their successful Elbphilharmonie debut with Sabine Meyer, Jan Caeyers and his orchestra Le Concert Olympique are returning to Hamburg. The renowned Beethoven specialist has set himself a special goal with the BEETHOVEN27 project: from 2024 to the Beethoven Year 2027, he aims to build bridges between the 27 member states of the European Union with 27 works by the great composer.
The BEETHOVEN27 project now starts with Beethoven's first works, and not only in the symphonic genre. The Second Piano Concerto is actually also a first (it was only printed as a second). And so this work in particular reveals a likeable impulsiveness and an exuberant wealth of ideas - youthful enthusiasm at the beginning of a new musical era. Star pianist Kit Armstrong, musical partner of Beethoven27, will perform the Sonata Pathétique between the two orchestral works and, as at all BEETHOVEN27 concerts, will open the evening with Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: music that Beethoven was influenced by and that opens the ears to a special listening experience like no other.
With BEETHOVEN27, all participants - whether on stage or in the audience - embark on an extraordinary journey through Beethoven's life and music. The 27 key compositions trace Beethoven's development as an artist. The focus is on nine programmes or ‘tableaux’ that illustrate Beethoven's career chronologically. Each of these programmes follows a similar structure: one of the nine symphonies is paired with a concertante work as well as a piano sonata or a historically related chamber music piece. The idea behind this is that the forward-looking quality of Beethoven's compositions always began in his pianistic thinking and that the development of his orchestral music should also be understood from this perspective.
Invited as an artistic partner, the exceptional young musician Kit Armstrong is helping to shape the project. His humanistic approach to the role that music and musicians can play in the world emphasises the spiritual dimension of the Beethoven project. The core programmes of 27 key works will be framed by performances of two of Beethoven's masterpieces: the Ninth Symphony and the Missa solemnis. These works, whose significance extends far beyond the musical, emphasise the political and idealistic ambition of the BEETHOVEN27 project, which aims to forge links between concertgoers in the 27 EU member states.
BEETHOVEN27 also includes the documentation of the concerts and the publication of audio and video productions. An exemplary recording in an important European concert hall is planned for each rehearsal and concert phase. In this way, BEETHOVEN27 not only paints a portrait of Beethoven, but also a picture of a common European concert culture, which is largely due to the continuous cultivation of Beethoven's work. The project will also be made accessible to a wider audience through a documentary film, a television series and short educational videos.
The Elbphilharmonie is one of the few venues in which the entire project can be experienced. Jan Caeyers and his Beethoven orchestra Le Concert Olympique will perform all 27 of Beethoven's key works here until the Beethoven Year 2027.
The BEETHOVEN27 project will be complemented by a new book by Jan Caeyers due to be published in autumn 2026, tracing Beethoven's musical path through key works. Together with the biography published in 2009 (2012 in German, 2019 in English) and the recordings of the concerts, it will form a trilogy of reflections on Beethoven and his music, two hundred years after his death in 1827.
