Online talk: Beethoven Matters

14 May 2020

We are pleased to share details of an upcoming talk, rescheduled from April, that we can now fulfil online with help from our friends at Garsington Opera.

As lockdown began, we were obliged to suspend our planned talk about Beethoven, with whom the RPS had a very special association, commissioning his Ninth Symphony. We are pleased to say, we are now able to proceed with the talk online:

Beethoven Matters

6.00pm Tuesday 26 May 2020

250 years since his birth, 2020 should have been resounding with Beethoven. But what precisely has made his music endure all these years and how can we celebrate his legacy from lockdown?  With Garsington Opera, we assemble an expert musical panel to share their frank impressions. Writer Jessica Duchen – currently at work on her own novel about Beethoven – is joined by tenor  Toby Spence, pianist and academic  David Owen Norris, composer  Freya Waley-Cohen, and Garsington Artistic Director Dougie Boyd to reflect on Beethoven’s enduring spell over musicians and audiences to this day. Amid lively discussion, Toby and David will also perform a little of Beethoven’s music.

You can watch the talk live on YouTube or Facebook at 6.00pm (BST) on Tuesday 26 May: please simply return to this page and click either of these links then:

If you are unable to view the event live, RPS Members will be able to watch it consequently along with our other talks in the dedicated Members Area of the RPS website. To find out more about becoming an RPS Member, and how your Membership can help us support musicians, click here.