3MBS’s Marathon is this year celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday – given all the Beethoven being programmed next year, how did you go about making this birthday celebration unique?

With this year being the year of Beethoven, I was conscious of using the format of six concerts in one day to achieve three distinct things. Firstly with the marathon format, I have the ability to showcase not just the compositions that we all know but also fabulous works rarely performed or broadcast.

BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Secondly I wanted to show the softer, more human side to Beethoven – we all know that he was an irritable man who suffered from deafness but very rarely is it mentioned that he was also the person who put his career on hold, and turned down lessons from Mozart so that he could return home to look after his brothers when his mother was ill. We will do this, not just through his music but also by exploring a selection of writings and letters written by Beethoven throughout the day. It is also an incredible ability to showcase the vast talent that Australia and Melbourne has – Australian String...