“Without Beethoven, the music of today would certainly not sound as it does, and the same applies to jazz”, remarks Dieter Ilg, the leading European jazz double bass player who has frequently accompanied outstanding jazz pianists at the Ruhr Piano Festival. To honor the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Ilg converts the Olympian giant’s music into his own artistic language. In this evening’s recital, the formidable jazz virtuoso and improviser appropriates works by Beethoven in his own unique manner: he calls this programme, “My Beethoven”. Ilg grew up in Freiburg listening to folk songs and classical music; his approach is not another instance of “jazzed up classical music”, but aims to propose “new impressions, fresh colors, modified structural concepts” borrowed from the idiom of jazz. Dieter Ilg has already proven his refined sense for classical music with projects based on Verdi’s Othello, Wagner’s Parsifal and “B-A-C-H”, all in a perfect trio blend with Rainer Böhm and Patrice Héral. Using movements from the piano sonatas and string quartets, along with Beethoven’s folk song arrangements and the Ode from the 9th Symphony as points of departure, the three musicians strive to “bring Beethoven’s musical expression into the modern age by means of an individual approach that respects his legacy.” May “their Beethoven” become ours as well!