I ask a friend / soprano.

My husband and I take a walk along the Rhine on New Year's Day evening, and the lights of the Beethovenhalle magically attract us (it was dark here for so many years):

"Limitless 1 - New Year's Concert". Through the windows and open hall doors, we can see the string players on stage.
Program: Ludwig van Beethoven, 9th Symphony 
Participants: Winner of the 11th Telekom Beethoven Competition Piano, etc., Beethoven Orchestra Bonn,
Conductor: Dirk Kaftan.

For me, it is the first evening that I experience the Beethovenhalle again in its old glory and lively. How long was this a construction site? I look it up on the internet: Renovation began in 2016, originally it was supposed to be completed in 2020 for Beethoven's 250th birthday, reopening: mid-December 2025, from the original €60 million costs, it became €221 million... absolute madness and there are already problems with the new parquet... but it is already a gem.

I wonder, what is there in Bonn with the name Beethoven?
Beethoven House, Beethoven Hall, Beethoven Festival (the annual classical festival held in September), Telekom Beethoven Competition, Beethoven High School, Beethoven Square, Beethoven Street - even "Beethoven Electricity" is offered by the Bonn public utilities... There are Mozart balls - is there a Beethoven confectionery, according to AI, no.
I will look for it in Bonn confectioneries.

My brain spits out forgotten things: among other things, I had applied for a project in 2020 in Bonn for Beethoven's 250th birthday. I had totally forgotten that! And indeed, I find my concept for a spatial installation (title: "Beethoven's Seed and Our Harvest", "extended" mail art project) still on my computer and am amazed at what I knew about Beethoven back then and have forgotten again.

And my trip to China in 2014 comes to mind. I was traveling in the Wudang Mountains, the sacred Taoist mountains, and met a group of young Chinese pilgrims. They asked where I was from. 'From Germany, from Bonn...' And they immediately raved about Beethoven, they all played - some several - musical instruments, questioned me, and I was infinitely embarrassed that I knew so little. They seemed to know 'everything' about Beethoven... so another 'later' reason for me to learn more about Beethoven!

I ask a friend/soprano if she could imagine singing something by Beethoven for me and I draw in parallel.