BEETHOVEN 200
Music meets technology
Beethoven x AI places Beethoven’s musical tradition in the context of the technological possibilities of our time. Marking the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, this extraordinary artistic and technological project takes his 32 piano sonatas – a central part of his compositional oeuvre – as its starting point.
In collaboration with Yamaha, the project will use modern technology to explore what defines Beethoven’s musical language and the many ways in which music can be interpreted. For the first time, artificial intelligence will be used to compare playing styles, interpretations, and forms of expression. The AI will not only identify musical patterns but also examine how musicians engage with a work today, how interpretations emerge, and what makes musical expression individual and unique.
Can artificial intelligence learn from this and itself enter into an artistic dialogue with musicians—even to the point of direct interaction on stage?
The 32 piano sonatas provide the project’s artistic and scientific framework: as a tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven, as a reflection of diverse interpretations, and as a starting point for exploring how tradition, human creativity, and artificial intelligence might interact in the future.
01
Academy
Selected young pianists work on passages from Beethoven’s sonatas with internationally renowned professors and artists. Their playing is recorded before, during and after this collaborative process, allowing AI to analyse how interpretation, expression and performance evolve through artistic exchange.
02
AI and Pianist in a Duet
One pianist on stage – with AI as a musical partner. In a work for two pianists, a human performs one part while an AI system plays the other. The AI listens in real time and reacts to tempo, dynamics, articulation and musical shaping, creating a direct musical dialogue between human and machine.
03
Technology Forum
The public Technology Forum brings music, science and technology together. Experts from AI research, musicology and technology present initial findings from the project and discuss opportunities, limitations and new questions arising from the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence. The forum concludes with a live presentation of the AI-pianist duet.
04
32 Sonatas. 15 Pianists. Two Days.
All 32 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas will be performed in full and in chronological order within just two days. International young talents, renowned pianists and professors will make Beethoven’s musical development from the early to the late sonatas directly tangible.
These performances will also be recorded using the Yamaha Disklavier and analysed with AI, creating an extensive dataset on Beethoven’s complete piano-sonata oeuvre and the many different ways in which it is interpreted today.