Beethoven 2020 – Play On Website from Deutsche Grammophon

As we come to the end of the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven, we celebrate the ground-breaking composer's birthday on the 17th of December with an abundance of events and new releases. Explore the many facets of Beethoven in this website via our releases, videos, interesting facts, and playlists.

DG STAGE

Renowned Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman joins forces with the London Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Simon Rattle at LSO St Luke’s for a three-concert cycle of the five piano concertos.

NEW RECORDINGS

See all our new recordings as well as catalogue releases for this Beethoven anniversary. A new highlight is Max Richter's world premiere recording of Beethoven – Opus 2020 dedicated to the composer.

PLAYLISTS

See our playlists including Best of Beethoven and 25 Cult Albums in Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube in order to listen to our selection of top Beethoven tracks, recorded by our iconic artists.

PLAY ON! PLAY, AGAINST ALL ODDS

Under this motto we premiere a new music video with deaf hip-hop world champion dancer Kassandra Wedel, who dances to one of classical music’s most famous themes - Beethoven’s 5th symphony 1st movement.

THE RECORDING BEHIND THE VIDEO

The pulsating interpretation of Beethoven’s 5th symphony first movement behind the video is from the legendary Deutsche Grammophon artist Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

FACTS

See our facts about Beethoven you may not have known... . For instance, a recording of the first movement from Beethoven’s fifth symphony is currently “lost in space”, it was sent up as a message for other civilizations.