His work LES CRÉATURES from that year, a treatment of Beethoven’s DIE GESCHÖPFE DES PROMETHEUS, was nominated for the Benois de la Danse in Moscow and chosen as the best international performance at the 19th International Ballet Festival in the Cuban capital of Havana. Thierry Malandain goes one step further by approaching the symphony by way of Wagner’s concept of the “apotheosis of dance” and as an “artwork of the future”.Īs early as 2003, Thierry Malandain and his company undertook an intense exploration of Ludwig van Beethoven. The idea of “pure music” has repeatedly motivated choreographers to explore Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, among them Uwe Scholz in 1991 or Léonide Massine in 1938. On reviewing this transcription at a later date, Liszt remarked that “the more familiar I become with Beethoven, the more I realise that even insignificant details are not without value.” For example, Liszt notated the names of the orchestra instruments that the pianist was to imitate. His transcription of the 5th, 6th, and 7th Symphonies were published in 1837. At an early stage, Liszt saw himself not only as a musician, but also as an ambassador of technical progress and – like Beethoven, whom he revered – as a humanist. Malandain prefaces the symphony with Franz Liszt’s transcription of the work. The most apt description of Beethoven’s Seventh comes from Romain Rolland, who called it an “orgy of rhythm”. It is interesting to note that although these verdicts displayed little appreciation, there is a certain underlying tone of admiration in all of them. The Beethoven-scholar Hans Mersmann (born in 1891) wrote that the Seventh represented an “absolute culmination of shapelessness”. What better evidence of how extraordinary the music was for its time. Richard Wagner has called the work an „apotheosis of dance” and Carl Maria von Weber even thought that Beethoven should be locked up in an insane asylum for this work. In spite of this, the 7th Symphony clearly belongs to the group of life-affirming symphonies – in fact, there are moments when Beethoven is downright boisterous.
After the 3rd – and perhaps also the 5th – Symphony, the 7th Symphony appears to be a further musical analysis of Napoleon and his political strategies, this time in the context of the European wars of liberation from years of Napoleonic occupation. When Beethoven began his 7th Symphony, Napoleon was planning his campaign against Russia. However, the period of hope promised by the French Revolution ended in disappointment for him and many of his contemporaries. Following a French pre-premiere at Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris, BEETHOVEN 7 will be performed for the first time in Bonn during the opening week of the Beethoven anniversary year.īeethoven was a passionate advocate of the movement towards democracy. By juxtaposing the two pieces, Malandain highlights the 7th Symphony’s particular rhythm. Malandain will concentrate on two notable features of Beethoven’s: his ability to reconcile tradition and creation, and his humanist ideals, which find expression in all works. This will be the first time that the symphony has been choreographed. He confronts the symphony with Franz Liszt’s transcription of the Seventh for piano, played live by pianist Magdalena Müllerperth.
Malandain, who is world-famous for the extraordinary musicality of his work, has chosen an unusual approach for his investigation of Beethoven as a humanist and citizen of the world by exploring the composer’s 7th Symphony from various approaches.
Theater Bonn asked the celebrated French choreographer Thierry Malandain for an artistic contribution to the Beethoven Year.
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