John Tavener
On 16 December 2020, two hundred and fifty years will have passed since the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, that inescapable towering figure of classical music. Beethoven is a staple of any symphony orchestra, but there is little doubt that his music will fill concert halls, radio stations, and practice rooms across the classical music-playing world like few other years. With that in mind, Music Sales Classical created Beethoven 250: Beethoven’s symphonies and works that program well alongside them — contrasting (or sometimes echoing) old and new.
The booklet offers over sixty works by composers such as Hans Abrahamsen, Lennox Berkeley, Benjamin Britten, Benet Casablancas, John Corigliano, Henri Dutilleux, Bohuslav Martinů, Thea Musgrave, Per Nørgård, Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, John Tavener, Joan Tower, Judith Weir, and many, many more.
Suggestions were based on considerations of ensemble size, duration, thematic links, direct influence, and quotation, or simply due to complementary musical style. We hope that this brochure will serve as inspiration, helping to create concerts which use Beethoven’s music as a lens through which important works from the last one hundred years can be celebrated.
This booklet is by no means exhaustive; if you would like to know more about any of these works, or the many others we publish for performance alongside music by Beethoven, contact our promotion team atschirmer@schirmer.com.
