Are you implying that Bonn aint exactly a swinging city, Mr Pure Foolishness?
May I relate an instance that might throw some light (or dark) on this question?
Almost a quarter century ago, I flew to Kön/Bonn to attend a performance of Sorabji's
Opus Clavicembalisticum in the 31st Bonn Beethovenfest at Bonn's flagship concert venue, the Beethovenhalle. The hall holds some 2,200, I think. I arrived at the hall at around 8.30 p.m. in ample time for the performance to commence at 10.00 p.m. The area around the hall was almost entirely deserted and one could have been forgiven for assuming that one was in a small German village at a time of day when all activity had already closed down. By the time that the performance was due to start, about six people had arrived but there was still little sign of life anywhere else in the vicinity. The performance eventually began at around 10.40 with a massive audience of around 60 which, in a place as large as the Beethovenhalle, did not look especially hopeful. In the first interval, I got into a discussion with someone who was involved in the festival who told me that the opening recital - an all-Beethoven programme - had been scheduled to be given by Arrau, no less but that, in view of Arrau's indisposition, his place has been taken by Bolet, no less. Almost 100 people had apparently turned up to that. Anyway, the Sorabji performance ended at around 3.30 a.m. the next day and I then went with the pianist and his wife to a restaurant. My astonishment that anywhere was open, still less actually serving food, at that time of day in this city was surely understandable. The pianist said to me that he had made a discovery of major importance that evening about Beethoven himself; Beethoven came, of course, from Bonn and the discovery was that Beethoven had only
thought that he'd gone deaf in later life because he could hear nothing in Bonn...
Best,
Alistair
