In 1800, the ballet master at Vienna's Hoftheater Salvatore Vigano asked Beethoven to compose the music for his new ballet about the cunning Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.

The work became an instant success and was performed 29 times the following season. Unfortunately, neither Vigano's choreography nor the original libretto were preserved; Beethoven's Opus 43 is all that remains.

Under the direction of conductor Jonathan Nott, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie performed Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" in a special version containing spoken texts by Hanns Zischler. The concert in Bonn brought the 2008 Beethovenfest to a close.

With its intervallic jumps, bizarre rhythms and dense polyphonies, Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, or "massive fugue," is one of his most radical works.

It was originally intended to serve as the last movement of his Op. 130 quartet, but Beethoven later opted for a much shorter finale, leaving the Grosse Fuge to stand alone.

The Gewandhaus Quartet from Leipzig -- the world's oldest continuous string quartet -- performed the work in the chamber music hall next to Beethoven's birth house as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

"An die Hoffnung" was Beethoven's first setting of Christoph August Tiedge's "Urania." The version here was composed in 1805.

Not unlike "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller, which Beethoven later used in his Ninth Symphony, Tiedge's poem is an appeal to hope itself.

Bass Robert Holl and pianist Elena Bashkirova performed the song in the chamber music hall next to Beethoven's birth house as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Written in 1842 for piano and string quartet, Op. 44 was Robert Schumann's only piano quintet. He completed it during his '"chamber music year," prior to which he'd composed mainly songs and solo piano works.

The quintet is arranged in four movements, in the traditional quick-slow-scherzo-quick form.

Elena Bashkirova (piano), Guy Braunstein (violin), Michael Barenboim (violin), Amihai Grosz (viola) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the quintet as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy," Tchaikovsky originally intended to compose an opera but settled on an orchestral version instead.

Passionate and picturesque, "Francesca da Rimini" is characterized by the juxtaposition of the light of love and the darkness of the inferno.

Under the direction of Sergei Stadler, the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory performed the symphony as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The young orchestra's concert was made possible by the sponsorship of Deutsche Welle.

Kuzma Bodrov's Caprice for violin and orchestra highlights the special qualities of the solo instrument with highly virtuosic passages and complicated rhythms.

Born in 1980, Kuzma represents a new generation of Russian composers that are turning away from the avant-garde and searching for a new national identity.

The Caprice was commissioned by Deutsche Welle and premiered by violinist Nikita Borisoglebski and the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Dubbed the "Pastorale," Beethoven's Sixth Symphony in F Major premiered in 1808 in Vienna. The work is a picturesque tribute to the life-giving power of nature, a theme central to the Russian music tradition.

Under the direction of Sergei Stadler, the Anton-Rubinstein-Orchestra from the St. Petersburg Conservatory performed the symphony as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The young orchestra's concert was made possible by the sponsorship of Deutsche Welle.

Paul Hindemith composed his quartet for piano, clarinet, violin and cello in 1938 as he was emigrating from Germany. It reflects neoclassical as well as contrapuntal elements harkening back to the Baroque period.

Elena Bashkirova (piano), Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet), Guy Braunstein (violin) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the work as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Johannes Brahms dedicated his B Minor Quintet for clarinet, two violins, viola and cello, written in 1891, to the clarinettist Richard Muehlfeld, whose playing the composer greatly respected.

Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet), Guy Braunstein (violin), Michael Barenboim (Violin), Amihai Grosz (Viola) and Kyril Zlotnikov (cello) performed the quintet as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

American composer Elliott Carter turns 100 this year. His works often adopt a neoclassical aesthetic and those written after 1950 tend to be atonal.

Carter's "Intermittences" for piano, written in 2005, tactfully parallels silence with sound.

It was performed by Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova as part of the 2008 Beethovenfest in Bonn.

The light-hearted nature of Beethoven?s Eighth Symphony, might well demonstrate that the great composer had a good sense of humor.

Evident throughout the work are many passages that could best be described as musical jokes. He began the work in the summer of 1812, shortly after completing the Seventh Symphony, and finished it in only four months.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

The composer Richard Wagner called Beethoven's Seventh Symphony "the apotheosis of the dance." Indeed, the work is one of the composer's most optimistic pieces.

Nevertheless, it was written during one of the most difficult periods in Beethoven?s life. The Seventh Symphony was premiered in 1813, when the composer?s health and hearing were in decline. He would become completely deaf by 1814.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

The opening bars of Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C minor are possibility the most famous few measures in all of classical music.

The work was first performed in Vienna in 1808 under the direction of Beethoven himself and it achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards. The Fifth Symphony remains one of the most popular symphonies of all time.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

Beethoven's Third Symphony in E-flat Major was originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte -- but only for a short time.

The composer had admired the ruler, but when the news came that he had declared himself Emperor, Beethoven ripped up the title page where he had written the dedication and produced another, giving it the new title Sinfonia Eroica, or the Heroic Symphony.

Performing is the Orchestre National de France, conducted by the legendary Kurt Masur. This concert was part of a series where the complete nine symphonies of Beethoven were presented as part of the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture Nr. 3 illustrates the central theme of "Fidelio," Beethoven?s only opera: abuse of power and individual heroism for the sake of liberty and human rights.

That Beethoven struggled with the idea of depicting these concepts in music can be seen in the fact that this is only one of four different overtures he wrote for the opera.

Performing is the German Chamber Philharmonic of Bremen, hailed by critics as "the best chamber orchestra in the world," under the baton of its principal conductor, Paavo Jarvi. They opened the 2008 Beethovenfest with the work at a gala concert on Aug. 29, 2008.

A performance that goes under the skin: The concert of the Beethoven Orchestra and the Philharmonic Chorus of Bonn on was directly connected to this year's festival theme: power and music.

Hanns Eisler, the composer of the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany), based the work on texts by Bertold Brecht dealing with the war and Nazi terror. Impressive choruses and solo vocal sections drastically depict not only the suffering of Jews in the concentration camps but also the fate of soldiers abused as cannon fodder and sent back to the homeland in tin coffins.

HK Gruber, Austrian composer and the conductor of this performance, combined Eisler's "German Symphony" with music by Kurt Weill and one of his own orchestral works, entitled "Charivari." The name translates roughly as "Caterwauling." In the deconstruction of a polka melody, the work refers to the co-responsibility of Austrians for war and terror.

Beethoven's second concerto piano premiered in 1795 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with the composer himself at the piano.

One of his earlier works, it has more Classical influence than his later concertos and resembles the music of Mozart.

It is performed here by Dmitri Demiashkin of Russia, who placed third in the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn on Dec. 13, 2007.

Completed in 1800, Beethoven's third piano concerto demonstrates his transition from the Classical to Romantic styles with its minor key, turbulent passages and freedom of form.

It is performed here by the winner of the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn, Yung Wook Yoo from South Korea. The winners' concert took place on Dec. 13, 2007, in the Beethovenhalle.

In his fourth piano concerto, Beethoven began attributing a greater role to the orchestra, straying away from the Classical solo-accompaniment model.

It is performed here by Keiko Hattori, who placed second in the Second International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn on Dec. 13, 2007.

Beethoven triggered a small revolution in the history of music with his quiet, harmonic and deceptive opening chord of the First Symphony.

When premiering his work in April 1800, in Vienna, the press wrote, "Nobody will reprove such freedom and characteristics to a genius artist like Beethoven, but such an onset does not fit into the opening of a grand concert."

By tradition, the second movement is a lyrical contrast to the rhetoric-dynamical main movement. The Andante cantabile con moto expresses strong influences by precursors Mozart and Haydn.

The concert took place on Sept. 21, 2007, in the Beethoven Hall in Bonn, as part of the Beethovenfest. The Beethoven Orchestra played under the leadership of the Ukrainian conductor Roman Kofman.