In his final year as Artistic Director, Roland Peelman has chosen to open the festival with William Barton, Persian tar player Hamed Sadeghi and Belgian jazz pianist Bram De Looze, as well as Lior and Nigel Westlake’s Compassion. Guitar virtuoso Pavel Ralev, violist Florian Peelman, France’s Trio Karénine and Dudok Quartet Amsterdam all make an appearance, as do Bach Akademie Australia and Luminescence Chamber Singers, in what promises to be an exciting week in the nation’s capital.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

On May 7 1824, Beethoven conducted the first performance of his Ninth Symphony in Vienna. Things did not always go to plan, not to mention the fact that the man in charge was profoundly deaf by that stage. But the new work, of unprecedented scale and ending with a visionary choral setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, changed the course of music in Europe. While the hymn has become the musical motto of the European community, Beethoven’s vision of the brotherhood of men has expanded in more ways than one.

Two eminent ensembles from Europe celebrate the universality of its message: Trio Karénine from France and Dudok Quartet Amsterdam from the Netherlands together with Belgian viola player Florian Peelman, based in Berlin.