Free podcasts

Once again, Deutsche Welle presents live recordings of concerts from one of the world's biggest Beethoven events. The 2011 Beethovenfest runs under the motto "Zukunftsmusik (Music of the Future) - Beethoven, Liszt and Innovation in Music." It features a stellar lineup of performers interpreting Beethoven's works and much more.

Don't miss highlights from a complete cycle of Beethoven's sonatas for piano and violin as performed by violinist Julian Rachlin and pianist Itamar Golan. Another standout moment is created by the legendary American composer Steve Reich, joined by Synergy Vocals and the Ensemble Modern in performances of his own works.

In tribute to Franz Liszt, 200 years after the composer's birth in Hungary, the Beethovenfest salutes the rich musical traditions of eastern Europe in many ways. Our harvest of podcasts includes performances by the Hungarian Festival Orchestra, the Roma and Sinti Philharmonic and the Dohnanyi Orchestra Budafok.

Also: the continuation of "The Schumann Project" with one of the world's finest chamber orchestras and a Beethovenfest regular, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

A visionary social and artistic experiment thoroughly in the spirit of Beethoven is documented in our podcasts from the yearly Campus Concert, this time with the young Kurdish, Arab, Shiite and Sunni musicians of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. The pieces include two world premieres of works commissioned by Deutsche Welle.

As always, the performances - whether excerpts, individual movements or complete works - are pure music, downloadable completely free of charge, and accompanied by brief introductory texts.

The Beethovenfest 2011 runs from September 9 to October 9 in Bonn, Germany. The podcasts are due for release starting on September 23 through October 14.