Beethoven Meets Stockhausen

The evening explores the tension between two compositional worlds that, at first glance, seem hardly comparable, yet reveal a surprising inner kinship. Tobias Koch on the fortepiano and Benjamin Kobler on the modern piano employ a deliberately contrasting set of instruments to juxtapose Beethoven’s sketches, bagatelles, and early piano compositions with those works by Stockhausen that feature structural condensation and radical conceptual approaches to sound. This juxtaposition invites listeners to trace artistic development processes through their ears: While Beethoven’s short forms are often regarded as a laboratory of musical ideas, Stockhausen’s piano pieces unfold their own logic of time, structure, and sound, challenging historical listening habits. The concert explores the extent to which interpretive aesthetics can overlap and whether an avant-garde work demands the same level of seriousness as a classical one—a question that is also repeatedly addressed in musicological discourse.