After three festivals and a journey through Beethoven’s entire creative life, we have reached the grand finale. Here we encounter a composer who, despite illness and complete hearing loss, continued to explore the outermost limits of music.

Tor Espen Aspaas performs Beethoven’s very last piano sonata, Op. 111. From the dramatic first movement, the music moves into the extraordinary Arietta, where a simple melody is transformed through variations that seem to rise beyond time and space.

The Engegård Quartet concludes the trilogy with String Quartet Op. 132. At its heart lies the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit — a sacred song of thanksgiving from someone recovering from illness. Here Beethoven moves between heartfelt gratitude and renewed vitality, in some of the most profoundly moving music he ever wrote.

A finale that looks not only back at Beethoven’s life and music, but also forward — towards everything his music can still mean to us today.

Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Tor Espen Aspaas, piano

Interval

String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 — featuring “Heiliger Dankgesang”
Engegård Quartet