This small orchestra, originally founded 13 years ago as an orchestra with the same composition as in the creation of Beethoven's 3d, has been cut back severely on state funding. They have a web site, but only in Flemish (Dutch): http://www.beethovenac.be
To try to compensate for this, they use modern fund raising techniques:
they are now for sale on e-bay!!!:
http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 0000908140
A shame that it had to come so far!
Also, the city of origin of Ludwig's grandfather (Mechelen (Malines in French) in Belgium) destroyed his house in the 1930's (I read this when visiting his birth house in Bonn).
In Europe we are really great to destroy what we (still) have: our culture, our industry, ...
We don't need Bin Laden: we just destroy ourselves, instead of using our culture to try to civilise the world!!! I am really happy that on the other side of the ocean people are ready to take over: the fame of the great symphony orchestra's from Boston over NY to LA can rivalise with Berlin and Vienna!
