Composer, innovator, musical radical: Upcoming festival celebrates Beethoven's 250th birthday in experimental style

This year marks 250 years since the birth of one of the
most renowned composers of all time, Ludwig van
Beethoven. Germany has poured 27 million euros
into marking the occasion, and there are a
number of events happening here in Berlin, including Labor
Beethoven 2020, which is a contemporary reading of the work of
Beethoven.


We spoke with Julia Gerlach, the head of music at the Akademie
der Künste Berlin and the director of Labor Beethoven 2020, to
find out more about some of the musical experimentation that has
grown out of the celebration and how this benefits the composer’s
legacy.


Produced by Sylvia Cunningham