“Courage!” – that is the motto and the question behind the programme for the 2026 Kronberg Festival. From September 22nd to October 4th, the festival invites you to the Casals Forum and poses a question that concerns us all: Where do we find the courage to follow our inner voice? Stegreif is particularly delighted to be able to put together a concert programme around this question. This time, Stegreif brings with it the ‘freeEroica’ programme. For the ensemble loves free spirits, revolutionaries and non-conformists – all those who had their own vision of the world and were not afraid to live by it. Following on from ‘freebeethoven’, in this production the orchestra once again turns its attention to the first self-determined, independent composer in the history of classical music and his Third Symphony.
More about freeEroica
Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ focuses entirely on the French Revolution and its values. Originally composed for Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven decided immediately after the latter’s self-coronation that the tyrant was neither a historical hero nor a suitable dedicatee for the symphony, which itself represents a revolutionary act in the history of music.
freeEroica is about revolutions – both historical and musical – and the heroes they have produced. Without sheet music, without a conductor and without chairs, the orchestra reaches out to them, whilst also seeking out the small upheavals – even if these consist ‘merely’ of entering the concert hall without shoes or taking the audience on a journey from 18th-century France to the present day. In this way, the Eroica is brought to life anew through performance, improvisation and recomposition. Broken bars, oversized props and disrupted orchestral formations bring to life Beethoven’s quest for the new and the unexpected in a work which, as part of the centuries-old canonical repertoire, no longer clashes with today’s listening expectations.
Photo: Gunnar Laak
