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This year’s International Beethoven Festival kicks into high gear on Saturday with a slew of disparate events, including a performance of Bach’s Saint John’s Passion by one of the fest’s house groups—the Prometheus Baroque Ensemble—conducted by the great German composer Matthias Pintscher at 5 PM. But for me the real excitement arrives on Sunday, where the impressive breadth of the festival, coordinated by founder and artistic director George Lepauw and music director Aurelian Pederzoli (of Spektral Quartet), is on full display.
Also on the program is Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen, an important early work for percussion, piano, and electronics from 1969-’70 (a separate version of the same name was composed exclusively for four-channel electronics). Below you can check out a performance of the piece by Bernard Wambach, Mircea Ardeleanu, and Fred Rensch.
