‘The Eternal Original’ marks 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death

The classical-music world loves anniversaries, especially those marking births, deaths and debuts. Special historical milestones like a centennial or those involving a high-profile musician or musical composition draw even greater interest. 

Combine those two elements, and it’s a really big deal. And that’s exactly what is happening in 2027 with the massive worldwide commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death.

Little more needs to be said about this towering figure, who revolutionized nearly ever musical form he touched, from string quartets to symphonies, with dozens of works that continue to highlight programs and enthrall audiences worldwide.

Though Beethoven died on March 26, 1827, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its presenting arm, Symphony Center Presents, are not waiting until next year to begin their anniversary festivities. They have scheduled Beethoven: The Eternal Original, a season-long celebration of the composer and humanitarian beginning Nov. 5, 2026, and running through June 20, 2027. 

Included will be more than two dozen works, with iconic masterpieces like his Symphony No. 9 (Choral); Overture to Egmont; Diabelli Variations, and the Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (Archduke), as well as a few lesser-known gems like Elegy (also known as Elegiac Song), Op. 118, written for mixed voices and strings.

One of the most attention-grabbing highlights of the CSO’s Beethoven celebration will be its March 24, 26 and 27 presentation of all five of the composer’s piano concertos, featuring one of the world’s biggest classical stars: Lang Lang. The three programs will feature different concertos, with each including one of the composer’s overtures and the Symphony No. 4 on March 27.

The first of Beethoven’s five piano concertos were written in his youth and the latter two were composed in 1804-05 and 1809. The Fourth is known for one of the most radical beginnings of any concerto up to that time, because it begins with the soloist alone and not the orchestra, as was the convention.

“It was a move without precedent, and it is also remarkable how rarely Beethoven, imitated so often and in so many things has, been copied in this stroke,” Michael Steinberg wrote in his book The Concerto: A Listener’s Guide.

Overseeing this special set of concerts will be Paavo Järvi, a regular guest conductor with the CSO. The well-regarded Estonian maestro serves as music director of Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra and has held many other posts, including music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2001/11.

Here are the line-ups of the three Lang Lang concerts: March 24, Overture to Fidelio, Piano Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 4; March 26, Consecration of the House Overture, Piano Concerto No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 3, and March 27, Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Symphony No. 4 and Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor.

Here’s a look at other works featured in Beethoven: The Eternal Original.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Nov. 5-8, Symphony No. 5, Marek Janowski, conductor. The Symphony No. 5, with its famed, repeated opening motif, consistently ranks among the most performed such works in the world. It is, for example, the second-most programmed symphony in the 130-year history of Carnegie Hall, with 328 performances.

Feb. 19-21, Overture to Egmont, Karina Canellakis, conductor. The nine-minute work was written as part of incidental music that Beethoven created for the Vienna revival of Goethe’s play about Count Egmont’s 16th-century struggle for Dutch liberty.

March 11-14, Violin Concerto, Isabelle Faust, violin, and Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor. This work did not catch on until 1844, when famed violinist Joseph Joachim, then just 12 years old, created something of a sensation by performing it in London with Mendelssohn as conductor.

June 17-20, Elegy, Klaus Mäkelä, conductor. Perhaps the least known of all the Beethoven selections on tap for this celebration, this short 1814 work for mixed voices and strings was written as an elegy to the wife of one his friends and patrons who died three years earlier.

June 17-20, Symphony No. 9 (Choral), Mäkelä, conductor. Considered one of the great masterpieces of Western music, Beethoven’s final symphony was the first by a major composer to incorporate a vocal part — the work’s culminating Ode to Joy.

Symphony Center Presents

Nov. 1, Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 (Moonlight), and Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 (Waldstein), Bruce Liu, piano. Liu’s program includes two of the most famous of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, including the Moonlight, which gained its familiar sobriquet after the composer’s death.

Nov. 22, Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (Kreutzer), with the chamber orchestra Double Sens, Nemanja Radulovíc, violin and leader. Radulovíc wrote a transcription of this well-known sonata that he could play with the internationally touring chamber orchestra of French and Serbian musicians that he founded in 2008.

Jan. 10, Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, Appassionata, Rudolf Buchbinder. The now 79-year-old pianist has recorded three different sets of the Beethoven piano sonatas across his long career, including perhaps the best known in the 1980s on the Teldec label.

March 21, Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109; Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110, and Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111, Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Beethoven’s experimental, forward-looking late sonatas still seem contemporary more than 200 years after they were written. 

April 25, Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1; Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, Quasi una fantasia, and Diabelli Variations, Evgeny Kissin, piano. Anton Diabelli is remembered almost exclusively for his waltz that Beethoven turned into a now-revered set of 33 variations in 1819-1823.

May 18, Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3; Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 (Ghost) and Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (Archduke), Evgeny Kissin, piano; Maxim Vengerov, violin, and Gautier Capuçon, cello. Three of today’s most admired classical musicians take on three of Beethoven’s piano trios, another form that he conquered and made his own.