Three Questions for: Frank Wallburger
Initiator, Overall Project Manager and Tour Leader of the 'Beethoven Art Tour 1796 | 2026
'What prompted you to launch the 2026 tour project with a fictional-living Ludwig van Beethoven?
In the broadest sense, the roots go back a long way, to the years between 1969 and 1974. I was born in 1964 and grew up as the child of a working-class family in the former GDR. I was what you call a 'cuckoo's egg': My nature didn't fit into the family at all, as my mother often emphasized. As an 'outdoor child' and curious loner, forests, streams, quarries, abandoned places, and adventurous landfills of that time were my world.
But at the turn of the year 1969/70 something drastic happened: I saw and heard for the first time, more by chance, the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven in full length on television. My eyes and ears were wide open. 'What is that?'
In the period that followed, there were further events that I perceived through television images. Names burned themselves into my head. Names that have not left my side to this day.
Marc Rothko, dessen Freitod am 25.02.1970 mit der Ankunft seiner monumentalen „Mural“-Schenkung in der Londoner 'Tate' zusammenfiel; das Drama am Nanga Parbat von Reinhold Messner um seinen durch eine Lavine tödlich verschütteten Bruder Günther (Juni 1970); der Tod von Pablo Picasso am 08.04.1973 und sein „Guernica“ Gemälde sowie die Veröffentlichung von Pink Floyd legendärem Album „The Dark Side of the Moon“ (1973). Den Abschluss bildete 1974 der damals zehnjährige Garry Kasparow, der in einer Simultanpartie dem Schach-Titanen Michael Tal gegenübersaß. Elf Jahre später wurde Kasparow als nicht kalkulierbarer, antisowjetischer Rebell Weltmeister; dominierte danach die Schachwelt über viele Jahre.
What unites all names: They crossed borders and defied massive crises. Over time, they transformed me from a playful loner into a visionary project person who loves resistance. But Beethoven also towers above them all here. This tour 2026 is a homage to his life and work, but also a silent thank you to my 'Burned-in'.
If Beethoven were sitting across from you: What topics would you address? What questions would you ask?
Clearly! My topic would be the time between the premiere of the Ninth in 1824 and his death in 1827. I would actually only ask him a single question to give him space for a long monologue:
"Maestro, tell me: What exactly was going on in your head when complete deafness could not be cured, isolation from the world was the last lifeline and endless physical pain rose to the level of death. Despite these conditions, where did the sounds of your last string quartets come from?'
If you have to decide which three works of Beethoven are at the top of your ranking – how do you respond?
My nature is closest to the 3rd Symphony, the 'Eroica' – I like the heroic and the borderline. But the 7th Symphony op. 92 ist von all seinen Sinfonien diejenige, die mir am besten gefällt. Sie liefert solch eine Energie, dass man Bäume rausreißen möchte.
Natürlich muss ich die Waldsteinsonate nennen – ein bahnbrechendes Meisterwerk, eine „Sinfonie ohne Orchester“. Aber meine Nummer zwei ist seine letzte Piano Sonata No. 32 op. 111. How he builds variations there, how it suddenly swings modernly, only to then dissolve into the universe with farewell chords – it gives me goosebumps every time. He was so far ahead of his time!
Thought again. Making a ranking of Beethoven's works deeply offends the spirit of the 'Master' in the context of his life. I ultimately choose the Violin Concerto op. 61: ein Werk von unglaublicher Klarheit. Besonders die Aufnahmen der Solistin Hilary Hahn sind für mich das Maß der Dinge.