zamus: unlimited | Beethoven trifft Stockhausen

Tobias Koch (fortepiano) Benjamin Kobler (piano)

Tickets

Should Stockhausen be played in exactly the same way as Beethoven? And should Beethoven be listened to in exactly the same way as Stockhausen? Pianists Tobias Koch and Benjamin Kobler believe that the music of both composers truly comes to life only when it sounds as fresh as it did when it was first composed—in keeping with the principles of historically informed performance practice. Tobias Koch plays piano pieces, sketches, and drafts by Beethoven on the fortepiano, many of which have never been heard in concert. On the modern concert grand piano, Benjamin Kobler plays excerpts from Stockhausen’s final work, “Klang – the 24 Hours of the Day,” dedicated to him.

Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Bagatelles, piano pieces, sketches, drafts

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)
“Natürliche Dauern,” from *Klang – Die 24 Stunden des Tages*

Further information

Venue:

Stadtgarten

The first concert in the newly built Stadtgarten concert hall in the mid-1980s launched a program unlike anything Germany had seen: an independent, artistically driven concert series devoted to contemporary improvised music. It was guided neither by attendance figures nor by public subsidies, yet it guaranteed musicians minimum fees and was run on professional terms. The conditions mattered just as much: an acoustically optimized, street-level concert space offering a strong setting for audiences and performers alike. Operations were financed through the adjoining hospitality business, the Stadtgarten restaurant and beer garden, a model that drew attention well beyond Germany.

Today the Stadtgarten Köln ranks among Europe's internationally recognized venues for contemporary and improvised music. The American magazine Down Beat features it regularly in its listings; it has received Germany's federal APPLAUS venue program award several times, including "Venue of the Year" in 2016, followed by the German Jazz Prize in the same category in 2022. More than 400 events across the full spectrum of contemporary music now take place there each year. Its international standing rests above all on the high proportion of demanding, experimental programming.

A programming mission of this kind depends on reliable public support. The venue's 30th anniversary in September 2016 opened that prospect: through a partnership between the City of Cologne and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, programming work is being substantially strengthened, and from 2017 onward the Stadtgarten Köln is being developed step by step into a "European Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music" – with the goal of becoming one of Europe's leading music centers.

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