Few people know that Beethoven composed the music for the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, commissioned by the Italian ballet master Salvatore Viganò in 1801. While the music was intended to entertain rather than to move, the myth of Prometheus must have appealed to Beethoven on a deeper level. Its themes of enlightenment, freedom and human development remain just as relevant today.

Internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Melissa Hough creates a brand-new ballet to excerpts from Beethoven’s Prometheus — especially for this festival.

This will be an evening where music, movement and mythology meet. The Engegård Quartet performs the String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 No. 3, before Beethoven’s magnificent and irresistibly exuberant Septet brings the concert to a close.

Programme:

World premiere of new choreography to Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus — Melissa Hough and the Festival Ensemble

String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18 No. 3 — Engegård Quartet

Interval

Septet in E-flat major, Op. 20 — Maria Włoszczowska, Juliet Jopling, Amy Norrington, Jose Gaviria, Pierre Xhonneux & Marie Solum Gran