Yeethoven: Listen to the orchestra-performed Kanye West - Beethoven mash-up in full

Concert was part of a series on musical greats

It was lit in the orchestra pit at the Aratani Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday night, when the Young Musicians Foundation hosted Yeethoven, a concert that featured orchestral performances of Kanye West’s Yeezus work and mash-ups of Ye and Ludwig van Beethoven.

“One of the comparisons we’re going to make is with form,” arranger and co-curator Stephen Feigenbaum told the audience. “The piece we just heard by Beethoven has this ending that’s really disjointed relative to the rest of the piece. It’s very chaotic most of the time and then at the end it’s suddenly very jubilant and almost ecstatic…it’s so over the top relative to what’s happened before it. And Kanye does the same thing with ‘New Slaves’.”

You can hear that juxtaposition (which occurs just before the 13-minute mark and is pretty majestic, drawing whoops from the crowd) in a recording of the full performance below:

The 70-piece Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, led by conductor Yuga Cohler, also focused in on Kanye’s ‘Blood on the Leaves’ track.

A few videos have also found their way online:

It’s just a matter of time now before someone lays Ye’s bars over the top.