Beethoven's Tenth Symphony, completed by AI, in concert in Turin for Tech Week

The potential offered by Artificial Intelligence in the field of art is limitless, and the use of this tool opens up certain scenarios that were unimaginable until some time ago. Who would have thought that a symphony left unfinished by Beethoven would be completed and played live in 2023?

Yet this is what happened in Turin on September 27 at Tech Week, Italy’s most important event on technology, organized by GEDI and held at OGR. The Forge Hall was transformed into a veritable time machine, transporting us directly to 1827, the year Beethoven expired leaving his Tenth Symphony unfinished. A work that, more than 200 years later, will finally see the light of day, thus paying homage to the talent of one of the most important composers in human history.

This was made possible by an international connection between the Karajan Institute in Salzburg, which had the foresight and ambition to conceive the project, and Rutgers University in New Jersey, which fully embraced the proposal by providing and bringing together a pool of AI experts, members of the start-up “Platform AI,” and musicologists to bring to life a work that would otherwise have remained incomplete.

The burden and the honor of playing it at the opening of the tech event, which among others hosted speeches by Brian Chesky, CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, and John Elkann, CEO Exor & Chairman Stellantis and Ferrari, was entrusted to the Orchestra of the Sound Laboratory, conducted and founded by Mauro Tabasso in 2000.

The ensemble, created with the aim of having everyone play and share the joy brought by music, has about 70 elements of various ages. Tabasso, confident from the beginning that the event would be a success, responded thus to those who asked him what Beethoven would have thought of it:

“here is a diatribe that has never died down, but I think that if Beethoven had lived in the present day, he probably would have used all the musical and technological tools at his disposal to elicit the unique and powerful emotions that his music can evoke. To make a piece like this you have to be creative, sensitive and competent. Three talents that Beethoven had. The machine did a great job, but it was outstanding who brought it to produce this. I was moved, I think Beethoven would recognize himself in this music”.

So, the fruit of the meeting of genius minds from different eras was proof that artificial intelligence, placed in the right hands and used consciously, is a valuable resource and ally for the human mind, intelligence and creativity. Mediability always pays attention to news related to the world of communication and the latest technologies, in order to be up-to-date and in step with the times. This is what enables us to adequately answer the needs of our clients. Contact us to learn more!