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Throughout history, the cultural legacy of some geniuses has been of such universal magnitude that it's aftermath has spread far beyond the narrow confines of the actual field of their activity. In a study of the University of Cambridge, which is dedicated to the ranking of the 100 most important, most influential personalities in history, Ludwig van Beethoven is ranked 27th; Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821, rank 2), that brilliant commander and statesman a year older than Beethoven. While the French Revolution and it's later emperor influenced contemporary artists, Napoleon himself, did not care a bit about music. In the same way that his military campaigns of that time have continued to have an effect to the present day, Beethoven changed the face of music forever. In his fundamentally new conception of the art of sound based on the Viennese Classicism, everything that was created in composition by him at the time outshone even those, who did not know Beethoven and his music despite his later popularity. While the pianist Beethoven caused a furor and was admired at a young age, his works caused astonishment and confusion from the very beginning, and often met with frowning criticism. Of course, there were also other, more positive voices. While Beethoven was at the height of his career in the middle phase of his life until about 1815, in recent years, the resentments against his misunderstood late style and the supposedly increasing oddness of it's author grew. Nonetheless, the respect shown to him by the international music community increased until the end of his life, culminating in a funeral that the city had never seen before. The casalQuartett's five-part Concert & album project explores the phenomenon of Beethoven's impact on his time, or, conversely, how other musicians influenced him.
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