Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conquered the world, he loved to travel. Ludwig van Beethoven, on the other hand, was generally rather shy and critical of travelling. Nevertheless, he always expressed the desire to turn his back on his home of choice: Vienna. At the age of 33, he considered making Paris his new home.
In our imagination, the year is 1803: the young Beethoven is travelling by coach to the French metropolis. Overwhelmed and inspired by all the breathtaking new impressions, he begins to compose. A colourful mixture of different musical ideas emerges in his head, some of which can be attributed to his own work, others to local music. With LUDWIG GOES PARIS, the Belgian composer Johan Nijs has succeeded in creating a wonderfully humorous musical joke that could - tongue-in-cheek - probably best be described as a "Wiener Melange" (Viennese mélange). For example, the French national anthem and the folk song "Sur le pont d'Avignon" are combined with various themes from his widely acclaimed nine symphonies. The best known is certainly the "Ode to Joy", which is also known as the European anthem. Even though the accordion as we know it today had not yet been invented in 1803, it offers a wonderful additional colour to bring you and your audience to "Beethoven's Paris" in the early 19th century: Bon voyage!
A Musical Jest for Winds & Percussion Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conquered the world, he loved to travel. Ludwig van Beethoven, on the other hand, was generally rather shy and critical of travelling. Nevertheless, he always expressed the desire to turn his back on his home of choice: Vienna. At the age of 33, he considered making Paris his new home.
In our imagination, the year is 1803: the young Beethoven is travelling by coach to the French metropolis. Overwhelmed and inspired by all the breathtaking new impressions, he begins to compose. A colourful mixture of different musical ideas emerges in his head, some of which can be attributed to his own work, others to local music. With LUDWIG GOES PARIS, the Belgian composer Johan Nijs has succeeded in creating a wonderfully humorous musical joke that could -...