Prize Winners Soirée 2025

As the opening event of the eleventh edition of the Telekom Beethoven Competition, the Prizewinners' Soirée will take place on June 14, 2025, at 7:30 PM in the Chamber Music Hall of the Beethoven House. In addition to the music, the evening will also feature the announcement of the competition's participants for December, which will be revealed for the first time during the concert.

At the Prizewinners' Soirée of the renowned piano competition on June 14, 2025, Lovre Marušić, the second prize winner of the 2023 competition, and Zhouhui Shen, the third prize winner of the 2023 competition, will once again perform in the Beethoven city of Bonn. They will present an outstanding program featuring works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Frédéric Chopin, and Henri Dutilleux.

The first part of the evening will be shaped by Lovre Marušić, who will perform Beethoven's Sonata Op. 14 No. 2, the "Moonlight Sonata," a composition full of contrasts, ranging from lyrical melodies to energetic passages. This will be followed by a selection from Jean Sibelius’ Op. 76 (Consolation, Pièce enfantine, Arabesque, and Élégiaque), characterized by Nordic tonal colors and melancholic moods. He will conclude his program with Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie Op. 61, a work of great harmonic refinement and passionate drama, combining improvisational and dance-like elements. His performance will be rounded off with the movement "Choral et Variations" from Henri Dutilleux’s Piano Sonata, which explores the possibilities of modern piano playing through expressive tonal colors and extraordinary structural design.

Following the presentation of the participant field for the 2025 competition, Zhouhui Shen will take over the second part of the concert. She will perform Beethoven’s monumental Sonata Op. 106, the "Hammerklavier Sonata"—a technically and interpretatively outstanding work. With its four movements (Allegro, Scherzo: Assai vivace, Adagio sostenuto, Introduzione: Largo – Fuga: Allegro risoluto), it is considered one of the greatest challenges in piano literature. The Adagio, in particular, is regarded as one of Beethoven’s most profound slow movements, while the final fugue, with its dense polyphony and complex voice leading, demands the highest level of pianistic mastery.