28.8.– 27.9. 2025

Sat. 16.9.

14:00, Poppelsdorfer Schloss

Zeitenwende: a musical bike tour

  • Open Air
  • Past Event
  • € 10
  • © Wencke Lieber
    © Wencke Lieber
  • Tanja Tetzlaff, Programm-Pressekonferenz Beethovenfest 2023 © Michael Staab
    Tanja Tetzlaff, Programm-Pressekonferenz Beethovenfest 2023 © Michael Staab

Contributors

Programme

Guided bike tour with music, 14:00–approx. 19:00

Route: Poppelsdorfer Schloss – Kottenforst – Bahnhof Kottenforst – Poppelsdorfer Schloss

 

Concert at »Zeitenwende«, Kottenforst Bonn, 16:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
From »26 Welsh Songs« WoO 155: »Farewell, though Noisy Town«, »To the Blackbird« und »To the Aeolian Harp«

Ludwig van Beethoven
From »25 Irish Songs« WoO 152: »The Return to Ulster«, »Dermot and Shelah«

Keiko Abe
From »Works for Marimba« Vol. III: »Song of Trees«

Johann Christoph Bach
Ciaconna from the Cantata »Meine Freundin, Du bist schön«

Ursula Mamlok
»From my Garden« for Solo Violin

 

Concert at Bahnhof Kottenforst, 17:30

Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude from Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 for Solo Cello

Ludwig van Beethoven
Duo No. 1 in C Major, WoO 27 for Violin and Cello – Allegro comodo

Ralph Vaughan Williams
From »Along the Field« for Voice and Violin: »We'll to the Woods no more«, »Along the field as we came by«

Ludwig van Beethoven
Duo in E-flat Major for Violin and Cello, fragment from the Bonn period

Johann Sebastian Bach
»Ich will doch wohl Rosen brechen« from the Cantata »Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch« BWV 86

Schedule

  • 14:00 start Poppelsdorf castle (Poppelsdorfer Schloss), Meckenheimer Allee 171, 53115 Bonn: check-in and greeting
  • Bike tour Bonn – Zeitenwende, Kottenforst Bonn, 10 km
  • 16:00 Concert Zeitenwende
  • Bike tour Zeitenwende – restaurant Bahnhof Kottenforst, 53340 Meckenheim, 7 km
  • 17:30–18 Uhr Concert Bahnhof Kottenforst
  • Bike tour Bahnhof Kottenforst – Bonn, 12 km
  • 19:00 tour end, Poppelsdorfer Schloss
     

Description

This nature-loving concert day makes it possible to experience music in unfamiliar surroundings in a completely new way. Beethoven’s love of nature and the cautionary place »Zeitenwende« in the Kottenforst inspire the music composition of the day. Follow in his footsteps – completely emission-free by bicycle. You will be guided by the musicians Anna-Luise Oppelt and Mareike Neumann, who received the OPUS KLASSIK for their music bike tour »Bach by Bike« in 2022.

The tour starts at the Poppelsdorf Palace at 2 pm. From there it is a 10 km bike ride to the »Zeitenwende« memorial in the middle of the Kottenforst. There you will experience a concert with the Bach by Bike Ensemble at 4 pm with works by Beethoven, Bach and contemporary music, inspired by the relationship between man and nature, for mezzo-soprano, violin, cello and percussion. 

The tour continues 7 kilometres through the forest to the restaurant at Kottenforst station. While enjoying refreshments in the beer garden, you will hear more chamber music works by Beethoven, Bach and Vaughan-Williams to round off the excursion. After the concert at around 6 p.m., you can either cycle home individually, e.g. by S-Bahn, or cycle 12 kilometres back to the city centre with the guided group together with the musicians from Bach by Bike. The tour ends at 7 pm at Poppelsdorf Palace.

Please bring a roadworthy bicycle to the event. In case of bad weather, there will be an alternative performance without a bike ride in the immediate vicinity of Poppelsdorf Palace – meeting point and time remain unchanged.

 

Bach by Bike is a bicycle and music project conceived by Anna-Luise Oppelt, mezzo-soprano, and Mareike Neumann, violinist in the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. With Bach by Bike, the two have been offering innovative musical bike tours for over 10 years, mostly along the sites of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life. In 2022, Bach by Bike was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK. The enthusiasm for discovering nature and music by bike and making them resound will lead Bach by Bike to the Beethovenfest Bonn for the first time in 2023.