Journey Through Beethoven's Life: From Prodigy to Musical Legend - Audio Documentary

Join us on an enlightening journey as we explore the remarkable early life of Ludwig van Beethoven. Born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770, Beethoven was baptized shortly after, a common practice of the time, hinting at his likely birth date. His family, with a musical lineage led by his father Johann, a court singer, and his grandfather, a former Kapelmeister, had high hopes for young Ludwig. Despite the harsh and demanding methods employed by his father to cultivate his talent, Beethoven's extraordinary musical abilities began to shine, leading to his first public performance at the tender age of seven.

As we trace Beethoven's early years, the conversation takes us to Vienna, where he moved in 1792 to study under the esteemed Joseph Haydn. Vienna's vibrant musical scene provided both opportunities and challenges for the young composer, who initially struggled to find financial stability and suitable patrons. However, with support from influential figures like Baron Gottfried van Swieten and Prince Karl Lichnowsky, Beethoven's reputation as a pianist and composer began to grow. His early compositions and public debut at the Burgtheater marked significant milestones, even as the backdrop of political upheaval in Europe, including the French Revolutionary Wars, influenced his life and work.

The episode also sheds light on Beethoven's later years, a period marked by personal and professional challenges yet defined by artistic triumph. We discuss his admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte, which inspired the "Eroica" Symphony, and the personal turmoil that accompanied his creative endeavors, including unrequited love and strained relationships with patrons. Despite these obstacles, Beethoven produced iconic works like the "Appassionata Sonata" and the Ninth Symphony, where he set Schiller's "Ode to Joy" to music. Through adversity, Beethoven's legacy endured, leaving an indelible mark on the world of music, which we explore in depth.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
The man known to history as Ludwig Van Beethoven was most
likely born on the 16th of December 1770 in the city of
Bonn in Germany. There is no record of his birth,
but he was baptized on the 17th of December and the custom at
the time in Germany was for newborns to be baptized the day

(00:26):
after they were born. His father, Johann van
Beethoven, was a singer at the court of Maximilian Friedrich,
the Archbishop Elector of Cologne.
Johann's father Ludwig, whom thechild was named after, served as
Capelmeister, or music director of the Electors Court in Bonn.

(00:46):
The fan in the family name indicates that the family came
from the Low Countries, hailing from the Belgian village of
Betancourt, known in Dutch as Bitawa or Bettenhoven, though
unlike the German fawn, this wasnot necessarily an indication of
noble heritage. His mother, Maria Magdalena

(01:06):
Cavaric, was the daughter of thehead chef for the Archbishop
Elector of Tria. Following the death of her first
husband, she married Johann van Beethoven in 1767.
The couple would have seven children, of whom only three
boys survived infancy. Ludwig Kaspar, Karl and
Nicolaus, Johann Beethoven's native Archbishop Electorate of

(01:30):
Cologne, was one of over 300 states of the Holy Roman Empire,
the medieval political entity that claimed political authority
over much of Germany. As his title indicates, the
Archbishop Elector of Cologne was one of the several imperial
Princess who had the right to vote for the Holy Roman Emperor.
From the 15th century. The emperor was almost always a

(01:53):
member of the House of Habsburg,the rulers of Austria, but
Archbishop electors such as Maximilian Friedrich exercised
considerable political and spiritual authority in their own
domains. Politically and culturally, the
German people looked for guidance from the Imperial court
of Vienna, where Empress Maria Teresa ruled alongside her son

(02:16):
Joseph the Second. Though the Habsburgs were
traditionally responsible for leading the Catholic Counter
Reformation in Europe, the Austrian Habsburgs of the 18th
century introduced reforms that weakened the Catholic Church and
expanded religious toleration. In 1773, following the death of

(02:36):
Ludwig's namesake and grandfather, Johann van
Beethoven sought to succeed his late father as Kappelmeister,
but was denied the appointment. In around 1775, Johann turned
his energies to developing the musical talent of his eldest
surviving son, teaching him basic musical theory as well as
how to play the violin and a range of keyboard instruments.

(03:00):
The most popular keyboard instrument at the time was still
the harpsichord, in which sound is generated by plucked strings.
Over the course of the 18th century, the piano Forte or
piano became increasingly popular among keyboard players.
By hitting the strings with small hammers, the piano allows
the player greater control of the volume and duration of the

(03:22):
notes. Johann's methods of instruction
included beating his son or locking him in the cellar if he
made mistakes, an approach whichcaused the young Beethoven to
emotionally detach from his father.
Ludwig was also taught by local musicians, including the
violinist France Anton Reese andTobias Pfeiffer, an insomniac

(03:44):
who frequently forced the child to wake up late at night for
keyboard lessons. The brutal instruction
notwithstanding, Ludwig soon exhibited great promise as an
instrumentalist, developing a talent for improvisation that
irritated his unimaginative father.
On the 26th of March 1778, Ludwig performed in public for

(04:07):
the first time, giving a recitalin Cologne at the age of seven,
though the posters advertising the concert claimed he was only
6. Johann hoped that his son might
follow the example of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who impressed
Maria Theresa in Vienna as a sixyear old prodigy in 1762, but

(04:28):
Ludwig's performance on this occasion drew little attention
that around this time, Ludwig started his schooling where he
learned Latin and French. While he struggled with numbers
and letters, he continued to show promise as a musician,
learning to write music at around the age of 10.
Given his musical promise and the expectation he would follow

(04:49):
in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and become a
court musician for the Archbishop Elector in late 1781,
Ludwig's education was entrustedto Christian Gottlob Nafer,
Maximilian Friedrich's court organist.
Nafer had studied music in Leipzig, where the great Baroque
composer Johann Sebastian Bach had spent his final years before

(05:13):
his death in 1750. In addition to introducing
Beethoven to Bach's Well tempered Clavia, already a
popular source of instruction for young musicians, Nafer
further enhanced Beethoven's understanding of songs and
choral music. By June 1782, the 11 year old
Beethoven was deputizing for histutor on the organ at the court

(05:37):
Chapel, and later that year his first published composition
appeared, a set of nine piano variations to a March by the
late Ernst Christoph Dressler, written under Nafer's guidance.
In March 1783, Nafer wrote an article in a music magazine that
suggested that Beethoven's talent could rival that of

(05:57):
Mozart, who was then establishing himself in Vienna,
where Joseph the Second had beensole ruler since his mother's
death in 1780. In October 1783, Ludwig
accompanied his mother, Maria Magdalena to the Netherlands,
where he gave several concerts. On the 23rd of November, a few

(06:17):
weeks shy of his 13th birthday, Beethoven was given 63 florins
after performing at a royal concert in The Hague, his first
paid engagement after his returnto Bonn.
Having dedicated a set of three piano sonatas to the Archbishop
Elector in 1783, Beethoven was formally appointed assistant

(06:39):
court organist in February 1784 and paid an allowance enabling
him to support his family at a time when his father was
descending into alcoholism. In April 1784, Maximilian
Friedrich died at the age of 76.His successor as Archbishop
Elector was the 27 year old Maximilian France, younger

(07:02):
brother to Holy Roman Emperor Youssef the Second.
Despite his imperial brother's later patronage of Mozart,
Maximilian France sought to cut back on court entertainment.
As part of the changes to the court Chapel.
Beethoven was promoted to organist with 150 florins, while
Nafer had his salary cut in halfto 200 florins.

(07:25):
Beethoven's salary was soon adjusted in line with Nafer's,
creating tensions between the master and his teenage pupil.
Despite these tensions, the 14 year old Beethoven continued to
write music increasingly influenced by Mozart.
With the court orchestra of some30 players at his disposal, he
began experimenting with instrumentation, working out how

(07:49):
the different sections of the orchestra fitted together.
However, over a four year periodduring Beethoven's late teens
between 1785 and 1789, he wrote less music than he would at
other points in his life as a result of his numerous duties as
a court musician. In addition to playing the organ

(08:09):
at Mass every morning, he performed as a court pianist and
served as an accompanist for theElectors opera singers.
During rehearsals in the court orchestra, Beethoven either
directed the orchestra from the harpsichord or played the Viola
in the string section. In early 1787, perhaps following

(08:30):
a suggestion from Nafer, Max France proposed sending the
promising young musician to Vienna to study under Mozart.
The Archbishop Elector agreed tosponsor the trip, hoping that
Beethoven would be in a positionto increase the prestige of his
patrons court upon his return toBonn.
Beethoven left Bonn in late March and would have arrived in

(08:52):
Vienna around the 8th of April. During his first visit to the
imperial capital, Beethoven recalled being impressed upon
catching sight of Emperor Joseph.
While Beethoven only mentioned seeing Mozart play, it is
possible that the latter may have offered the young man some
instruction. However, after less than two
weeks in Vienna, Beethoven received the alarming news that

(09:15):
his mother was seriously ill andwas forced to return home.
Weakened by tuberculosis, Maria Magdalena died at the age of 40
on the 17th of July 1787. The 16 year old Ludwig was
devastated at the loss of a loving mother, leaving him with
an emotionally distant and alcoholic father.

(09:37):
His depression was tempered by frequent visits to Helena von
Brauning, A wealthy widow who employed him to tutor her four
children in music. While Madame von Brauning took
the role of a substitute mother,Beethoven enjoyed playing piano
duet alongside her 16 year old daughter Elianora, and would
later become a close friend of her 13 year old brother Stefan.

(10:01):
In addition to emotional supportfrom members of the family,
Beethoven received an informal education in German literature,
history, geography and science from the Broinings and their
high society guests. The teenager read plenty of
literature and poetry, and was particularly inspired by
Schiller's Ode, Andy Freuder or To Joy, which celebrated the

(10:24):
divine gifts of love, brotherhood and freedom.
One member of the broiling circle was Franz Gerhard
Vegeler, a science student at the University of Bonn.
Through Vegeler's efforts, Ludwig managed to enroll at the
university as a part time student of philosophy.
Beethoven's duties as a court musician increased after a new

(10:46):
Court Opera Company was formed in January 1789.
Later that year, Beethoven was finally granted his raise when
his drunkard father was pensioned off with half of his
salary of 400 florins. The remaining 200 was given to
Ludwig, who effectively assumed responsibility for his father
and his two younger brothers. As Beethoven turned 19 in

(11:11):
December 1789, he had just livedthrough one of the most
consequential years in European history.
For several years, King Louis the 16th of France had been
struggling to replenish the empty French state coffers,
caused partly by his decision tosupport the United States of
America's successful struggle for independence against the

(11:31):
British Empire. By 1789, as famine swept over
the country and the nobility resisted higher taxes and
National Assembly, representing the commoners, took control of
the government. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Youssef
the Second's radical reforms hadbeen facing considerable
resistance at the local level, and the frustrated emperor

(11:53):
decided to reverse most of his measures.
Not long afterwards, Youssef died at the age of 50.
In February 1790, at the court of Cologne, Max France declared
public mourning for his brother.Beethoven was asked to compose a
memorial cantata set to a text by the poet Severine Avardonk.

(12:14):
Although he produced a profound 40 minute composition in C
minor, a key that Beethoven would use throughout his career
to symbolize tragedy, for unknown reasons the cantata was
never performed until it was rediscovered by Johannes Brahms
almost a century later. A second cantata written on the
accession of Youssef's brother Leopold the Second as Holy Roman

(12:37):
Emperor was also withdrawn before it was due to be
performed. Less than two years after Yousef
the Second's death, the musical world was shocked to learn of
Mozart's own passing on the 5th of December at the young age of
just 35. The exact cause of his death has
been a matter of wide-ranging debate, with everything from

(13:00):
poisoning to kidney failure being proposed.
His premature death meant that the 60 year old Franz Joseph
Haydn was now once again considered the leading composer
in Europe. Haydn's greatest contribution to
musical form was to popularize the Symphony, writing over 100
during his lifetime. While symphonies had initially

(13:22):
been three movement instrumentalpieces used to introduce operas,
Haydn transformed them into stand alone 4 movement
orchestral works, introducing a dance as a third movement in
between a fast opening movement,a slow second movement, and a
faster finale. While on his way to the first of
two celebrated visits to England, Hayden had passed

(13:46):
through Bonn in late 1790, wherehe was shown 1 of Beethoven's
cantatas and recognized his abilities.
While Hayden was in London, Beethoven was promoted to court
pianist in addition to his existing duties as court
organist. In March 1791, Beethoven wrote
the Ritter Ballad, A compositioninfluenced by German folk

(14:08):
dances, to accompany a dance spectacle organized by Count
Valdstein. On the 1st of March 1792, after
a brief reign of two years, Emperor Leopold the Second died
at the age of 44 and was succeeded by his son, the 24
year old Emperor of France the Second.

(14:28):
Just weeks later, the French revolutionary government
declared war on Austria in response to Austrian
preparations to do the same in defence of Queen Marie
Antoinette, the new Emperor's aunt, who is now effectively a
prisoner in Paris of the revolutionaries.
Much of the war over the next three years would focus on the
Austrian Netherlands around modern day Belgium and Prussia's

(14:52):
territories in the Rhineland region of western Germany, where
Beethoven's native born lay. With the region now facing war,
the Archbishop, Elector Max Franz, decided to send Beethoven
to Vienna to study under the great Haydn.
Thus, in November 1792, a month shy of his 22nd birthday,

(15:13):
Beethoven negotiated his way through columns of soldiers
marching to battle on his way toVienna.
He would live there for the restof his life, an imperial capital
of around 200,000 people, dominated by the River Danube
and the Hofburg, the Habsburg Imperial palace.
Beethoven arrived in Vienna withletters of introduction from Max

(15:36):
France and Count Valdstein, but soon realized that the financial
support promised by the Emperor's uncle was inadequate
to meet his expenses. However, news soon arrived of
the death of his father on the 18th of December.
Ludwig, who had always had a strained relationship with him,
did not return to Bonn, though his finances were improved when

(15:58):
he inherited his father's pension.
Furthermore, his career started to make major advances after
relocating to Vienna in January 1793.
Haydn joked that the young man was equipped to write grand
operas, while he himself would have to retire.
Beethoven had taken lessons fromHaydn due to the latter's

(16:18):
mastery of counterpoint, a musical interaction where two or
more lines that differ in their rhythm and melody continue to
maintain a harmonic relationshipwith each other.
Haydn gave Beethoven hundreds ofexercises in counterpoint, but
made few corrections to Beethoven's mistakes.
Within six weeks, Beethoven decided that Haydn could not

(16:40):
effectively teach him counterpoint, but continued to
benefit from his ability to observe Haydn's work at close
quarters and from Haydn's relationship with potential
aristocratic patrons. Despite his struggles, Beethoven
was already making a name for himself as a pianist in Viennese
society. Among the influential

(17:03):
individuals who took an interestin Beethoven's career at this
time was Baron Gottfried von Schwieten, the director of the
Imperial Library and a patron ofMozart and Haydn, who dabbled in
composition himself. Beethoven lived in an attic
apartment above the residence ofPrince Karl and Princess
Christiana Lichnovsky, who also invited him to play at their

(17:26):
Friday morning concerts. Prince Karl introduced the young
musician to his brother Count Mauritz, who would become a
close friend. Other influential figures who
would become important patrons were Joseph Frantz, Maximilian
Prince Lobkovitz and Count AndreKirilovich Razumovsky, an
amateur violinist who was appointed Russian ambassador to

(17:48):
the Habsburg court in 1792 by Empress Catherine the Great.
The young and ambitious Beethoven was not entirely
amused by constant requests fromhis aristocratic admirers to
improvise on the piano, but knewthat he had to do so in order to
make a living. Especially as it was not clear
how much longer the Archbishop Electorate of Cologne would

(18:12):
survive before the arrival of a French army, a development which
would preclude the possibility of returning home to Bonn.
In France, both King Louis the 16th and Queen Marie Antoinette
were executed by the revolutionary government in the
course of 1793, a French Republic having been declared

(18:32):
months earlier. Britain and the Dutch Republic
now join the war against France.Nevertheless, the armies of the
Revolution continued to see success on multiple fronts.
Despite the worsening wartime conditions.
Beethoven continued to work, publishing a set of violin
variations to an Aria from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro,

(18:54):
dedicated to his childhood friend Elianora von Bruening.
During his first year in Vienna he also worked on a Piano
Concerto in B flat major, which once completed would be his
Piano Concerto #2. Haydn sent several of these
composition to Max France in Bonn, requesting an additional
500 florins, having already lentBeethoven an identical sum out

(19:18):
of his own pocket. In his reply, the Elector
claimed that most of the compositions in question had
already been performed in Bonn, refused to increase Beethoven's
allowance, and indicated that hemight recall the composer to
Bonn. This incident, combined with
Haydn's departure for London fora second tour in 1794, saw

(19:39):
Beethoven begin to study under Johann Geog Albrechtsberger, the
capital Meister of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in the
center of Vienna. In October 1794, French armies
finally occupied Cologne, bringing hundreds of refugees to
Vienna, including Beethoven's younger brother Carl Kasper.

(20:00):
The extinction of the Archbishopelectorate, which followed the
French conquest, resulted in theloss of Beethoven's salary, but
the Lichnovskis allowed him to continue to stay as an honored
guest at their house. On the upside, at just 24 years
of age, he had begun to gain a reputation for his playing in
the salons of Vienna. After more than a year of

(20:22):
performing to aristocratic audiences, Beethoven made his
public debut in Vienna at the Imperial Court Theatre, more
commonly known as the Borg Theatre, on the 29th of March
1795, playing a new Piano Concerto in C major, later known
as his First Piano Concerto. Not long afterwards, he

(20:42):
published his first composition,a set of three piano trios,
which he dedicated to Prince Karl Lichnovsky.
Beethoven advertised the composition for sale at one
ducat. It attracted 249 subscribers,
making him a profit of just over1000 florins, enough for a
year's expenses. He followed this initial success

(21:05):
with a further set of three piano sonatas and was soon
publishing a steady stream of chamber music over the next few
years, including five trios for strings, three violin sonatas,
and seven piano sonatas. His stature as a pianist also
continued to grow, and in 1796 he embarked on a tour of Bohemia

(21:27):
and the German states of Saxony and Prussia.
In Berlin he performed twice forKing Friedrich Wilhelm the
Second of Prussia, to whom he would dedicate 2 of his cello
concertos. By the time Beethoven returned
to Vienna from his tour in July,the city was disturbed by the
military successes of General Napoleon Bonaparte, the young

(21:49):
French revolutionary commander who inflicted a series of
defeats against Austrian armies in northern Italy.
By early 1797, Napoleon's men had crossed into Austria soil
and were marching towards Viennaitself.
During this anxious period, Haydn composed the Kaiser Hymner
in praise of Emperor France, which would become the national

(22:12):
anthem of the Austrian Empire before being appropriated by
Germany as the Deutschland lead in April 1797 with Napoleon less
than 100 miles from Vienna, the city guard was mobilized and
Beethoven composed a war song entitled And Grosses Deutsches
Folk, A Great German nation. But a preliminary peace signed

(22:34):
at Leoben on the 18th of April meant that the song was never
performed. The following March, Viennese
society was awestruck by a grandoratorio by Haydn, the creation
who demonstrated he could still write magnificent music in his
late 60s. Beethoven still had to prove
himself as a composer, and decided to quit the Lichnovski

(22:57):
residence in favor of a rented apartment, which he could now
afford thanks to the money he was making from his printed
music. On the 2nd of April 1800,
Beethoven gave a concert at the Bourg Theatre.
In addition to a Mozart Symphonyand a couple of numbers from
Haydn's The Creation, the program included three of his

(23:17):
own compositions, a Piano Concerto, A septet for four
stringed instruments and three woodwind instruments, and a new
Symphony. The Piano Concerto was most
likely his second in B flat major.
The melodious septet became his most popular work yet, while his
Symphony number one in C major signalled his entry into the

(23:40):
field that Haydn and Mozart had made their own.
At the age of 29, having spent 71/2 years in Vienna, Ludwig Van
Beethoven was finally established as a popular
composer in his own right. Following his initial financial
difficulties, he was making goodmoney from his published
compositions, his performances, and from teaching piano

(24:02):
students, in addition to 600 florins a year from Prince
Lichnovsky. In the summer of 1800, he moved
out of the city center to the suburban village of Unter
Derbling. Henceforth, he would spend much
of his time in the countryside, taking inspiration for his
compositions from nature before wintering in Vienna, refining

(24:23):
his composition, positions and performing.
Around this time, the Austrian army fought and lost a second
war against revolutionary France.
In November 1799, General Bonaparte overthrew the French
government in Paris and established himself as First
Consul of the French Republic. Although an allied Russo

(24:44):
Austrian army had reconquered northern Italy, Bonaparte took
back Italy following victory at Marengo in June 1800, while his
colleague General Mojo decisively defeated the
Austrians at Hoenn Linden in Bavaria in December.
By February 1801, another peace treaty, in which Austria lost
further lands, was signed at Lunaville.

(25:08):
Although his position as a German composer in the Austrian
capital should have dictated otherwise, Beethoven, like many
European intellectuals, admired Bonaparte and viewed him as a
figure who might extend the ideals of European Enlightenment
across the continent. In the spring of 18 O 1, he
wrote The Music for the Creatures of Prometheus, an

(25:29):
allegorical ballet based on the myth of Prometheus, the ancient
Greek God who breathed life intomankind and gave them fire.
It may have been a thinly disguised commentary on
Bonaparte, though Beethoven had to be careful to get around the
census. In Vienna.
The ballet was performed 27 times and further increased the

(25:50):
composer's renown. At the age of 30, Beethoven
seemed destined to climb to greater heights as a musician
and composer. But his closest friends knew a
terrible truth about Ludwig. He was losing his hearing.
In June 18 O 1, he wrote to his old friend from Bonn, France,
Veigler, that his hearing had been deteriorating for the past

(26:13):
three years and that after consulting doctors with mixed
success, he continued to suffer from tinnitus, a severe ringing
in the ears. Not only did this mean that he
struggled to hear the music he was playing and composing, but
he had trouble hearing what people were telling him in the
theatre and on social occasions,causing him to isolate himself

(26:34):
from society, a development which somewhat explains his
decision to go and reside to an increasing extent outside Vienna
in the countryside. Here he fought his growing
depression at this turn of events by continuing to write
music. One work from this time is Piano
Sonata #14 in C# minor. In this, Beethoven opened the

(26:57):
piece softly, mournfully, in thelower octaves before the
introduction of the main theme, with a slow repeated G# note on
a higher register dedicated to his Italian student and love
interest Countess Julieta Guichardi, under the Italian
title Sonata Quasi una Fantasia.Like a fantasy, it would later

(27:20):
require the nickname Moonlight. Although Beethoven never
completely departed from the classical framework laid down by
Haydn and Mozart, the Moonlight Sonata was an early example of
the Romanticism of 19th century music.
In April 18 O2. Following the advice of his
doctor, Beethoven moved to Heiligenstadt, a quiet spa town

(27:43):
outside Vienna, where he struggled to come to terms with
his progressive deafness. While out on a walk with his
student and soon to be secretaryFerdinand Reese, the son of his
one time tutor in Bonn, the latter remarked on the
melodiousness of a tune emanating from a distant
shepherd's pipe, but Beethoven was unable to hear it despite

(28:05):
following the music towards its source.
Months later, in October 1802, he drafted what has become known
as the Heiligenstadt Testament. In this he addressed his
brothers and admitted his deafness and the difficulties it
was beginning to cause him professionally and socially.
He had, he confessed, even considered ending his life, only

(28:26):
to be held back by his dedication to his art.
Despite his difficulties, he soon returned to Vienna, keen to
create a work which would fit the heroic spirit of the age.
What caused his deafness has never been satisfactorily
resolved, with theories ranging from syphilis or typhus to lead
poisoning, and even a habit he developed early in life of

(28:49):
plunging his head into cold water when he wanted to wake
himself up in order to continue working.
Of course, all this raises a question.
If Beethoven increasingly could not hear, then how did he
continue to compose and write orchestral arrangements of the
quality that he did for so many years to come?

(29:09):
The answer is complex. Firstly, Beethoven had lived
half his life able to hear and so he knew what instruments
sounded like and how to arrange music through his memory of what
certain notes and combinations would result in a specific
sound. It has also been suggested in
recent times by Evelyn Glenny, an award-winning multi

(29:29):
percussionist who has been deaf herself since she was 12 years
old, that other parts of the body can learn to hear when the
ears fail and so the body becomes like a giant ear.
In Beethoven's case, he trained the rest of his body to hear.
He would place his teeth on the keys of the piano to hear the
vibrations through his mouth, and also had a megaphone

(29:51):
attached to it so that the vibrations coursed through his
body when he played. Some of this may have resulted
in his distinctive sound. The violent nature of some of
the arrangements and instrumentation in his works was
something of a byproduct of the manner in which he pounded on
the keys of his piano to feel the sound he was making.

(30:12):
Particularly so from 1812 onwards, when he effectively
became completely deaf. These impediments would make the
music he composed in the second-half of his life all the
more incredible. In the early summer of 18 O2,
Beethoven began to sketch a series of 15 variations and a
fugue on a theme from his Prometheus Ballet.

(30:35):
For the first time in a decade, the European continent was
briefly at peace after Britain and France made a peace at
Amiens in March 18 O 2 Keen to leave a legacy not only as a
general but as a statesman, Napoleon was in the process of
reforming French law, which soonafter its publication in March
18 O four came to be known as the Napoleonic Code.

(30:58):
By early 18 O3. Beethoven continued to play
around with his Prometheus themeand soon created the framework
for what would become his Third Symphony.
Composed in E flat major, it would become one of his greatest
and most revered works. An epic opening movement was
balanced by a funeral March in the second movement, followed by

(31:19):
a quick and joyful Scurtzo in the third movement, reminiscent
of a drinking party in an army camp, before an epic finale
featuring 10 variations on the same Prometheus theme that
Beethoven had grown to love. Destined to be grander and
longer than any of Mozart or Haydn's symphonies, Beethoven
named his work in progress Bonaparte.

(31:42):
It was also during this period that he premiered his Second
Symphony on the 4th of April 18 O3 at the Toyota Andavine in
Vienna. After moving back to the
countryside for the summer of 18O3, Beethoven completed his
Piano Sonata #21 in C major, dedicated to Count Valdstein,

(32:03):
who gifted him a French piano inAugust.
He continued to work on his Bonaparte Symphony, playing
extracts on the piano in the presence of his students.
By June 18 O four, he was able to present it to Prince
Lobkovitz's orchestra for a first rehearsal.
The first movement opened with two powerful E flat major chords

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before the cellos take up the theme in an energetic
exposition, which introduced a level of harmonic and rhythmic
complexity that confused the orchestra and forced them to
start again shortly before. For the recapitulation of the
main theme, Beethoven intended for a horn to introduce the
theme while the strings finishedthe development.

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Standing next to Beethoven, Reese assumed the horn had come
in too early and shouted. That damned horn player, can't
he count? According to Reese, Beethoven
did not forgive him for a long time for unintentionally
slandering his orchestral arrangement.
After doubtless many more undocumented rehearsals to

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familiarize the Lobkowitz players with the innovative
Symphony, Beethoven's princely patron and his orchestra
decamped to his summer palace with the manuscript in August.
By the time Beethoven returned to Vienna in late 18 O 4, his
emotional energies were divertedto the romantic pursuit of his
recently widowed student, Countess Yusufina von Brunswick,

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writing her a series of love letters in early eighteen O 5.
At around this time he wrote hisPiano Sonata #23 in F minor, the
tempestuous Apassionata Sonata, which he considered his finest
of the genre when Yusufina rejected him.
Beethoven to an opera he was writing based on Jean Nicholab

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Rouie's play Leonor. Set to a German libretto by
Youssef Sonleitner of the Bourg Theatre, the plot was inspired
by a real life tale of a young aristocratic woman who disguised
herself as a boy to free her husband from prison during the
French Revolution. Having been spurned by his
latest and most passionate love interest, Beethoven feared that

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the subject matter of the fidelity of married love was one
that he would never achieve. It would prove to be the case.
He never married. In December 18 O four, First
Consul Bonaparte crowned himselfEmperor of the French at the
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, in what to many people
seemed like a betrayal of the principles of the French

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Revolution. It was around this time that
Beethoven furiously scratched out the name of Bonaparte from
the title page of his Third Symphony, which premiered in
public on the 7th of April 18 O 5.
After rededicating the Symphony to Lobkowitz for 400 florins,
Beethoven retitled the Symphony Eroica or Heroic, subtitled

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Composed to celebrate the Memoryof a Great Man, like the
Lobkovitz Orchestra. During its first rehearsal, the
audience was bewildered, and only after several performances
did the critics catch up with the great composer.
In August 1805, Austria joined Russia and Britain in a third
coalition against France, which soon ran into disaster when

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Napoleon comprehensively defeated the Austrians in the
Ulm region of southern Germany, just as Beethoven was putting
the finishing touches on his opera.
Renamed Fidelio at the last moment, Napoleon advanced on and
then entered Vienna with his forces on the 13th of November,
while his aristocratic patrons fled the capital.

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Beethoven's Fidelio received itspremiere on the 20th of
November. It was not a success, and
Beethoven withdrew the opera after a revised 2 act version
staged in the spring of 18 O 6 achieved equally disappointing
results. Beethoven was somewhat upset by
the response to Fidelio, but he nevertheless continued to create

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splendid masterpieces in the years that followed, including
his Fourth Piano Concerto in G major, a violin concerto in D
major, and his Fourth Symphony in B flat major.
Beethoven's departure from classical norms often troubled
his listeners. When the violinist Felix
Radicati failed to appreciate them, Beethoven shot back.

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They are not for you, but for a later age.
Despite such statements of confidence in himself, he was
clearly troubled by both his ownpersonal circumstances and the
response by some critics to his work.
His behaviour was increasingly erratic during this period,
including regular fights with his two brothers, arguments with

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close friends, and an attempt tothrow a chair at Prince
Lichnovsky, which caused the Prince to stop paying his annual
subsidy of 600 florins. Over the course of eighteen O 7,
Beethoven composed some of his most famous pieces, including
two symphonies and a fifth and final Piano Concerto.

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With Haydn nearing his death, Beethoven was emerging as his
successor as the giant of European music, despite the
naysayers who continued to critique his work on occasion in
Vienna. Meanwhile, Napoleon had followed
up on his occupation of Vienna with a string of further
military victories which extended the French Empire

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across much of Beethoven's native Germany.
As Master of Europe, he began toplace his brothers and relations
on the Thrones of client kingdoms, including his youngest
brother Jerome, who was crowned King of Westphalia.
With his capital in the state ofHessa, Jerome soon invited
Beethoven to become his Capelmeister In October 18 O 8.

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Beethoven was inclined to acceptJerome's offer, having been
rejected by the Bourg Theatre for an increase in pay to 2400
florins a year. He was further motivated by the
sense that Vienna did not appreciate his genius, a feeling
which was compounded when a major concert of his in Vienna
on the 22nd of December 18 O 8 at the Toyota and Davine did not

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live up to his exacting standards.
This was despite it being the occasion of the premiere of his
Fifth Symphony with its four note opening motif consisting of
three short GS followed by a long E, one of the most
recognizable motifs in musical history.
On the 7th of January 18 O 9, Beethoven accepted the offer to

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become Capelmeister at Jerome's court in Westphalia.
However, he did not take up the position and instead used it as
leverage to improve his financial position in Austria.
Austrian society was preparing for another war against
Napoleon, but three aristocraticbenefactors were sufficiently
alarmed by the thought of Beethoven leaving to offer him

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4000 florins a year to stay in the Habsburg Empire.
Among the three men was ArchdukeRudolph, the youngest brother of
Emperor France, who had been studying piano with Beethoven
for over a year. In April 18 O nine, with
Napoleon's armies once again at the gates of Vienna in a fresh
war, Beethoven completed his fifth Piano Concerto in E flat

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major dedicated to Archduke Rudolph.
The militaristic composition would later be called the
Emperor Concerto, more likely inspired by Napoleon than the
unimaginative France. On the 4th of May, as Rudolph
was obliged to evacuate the capital, Beethoven completed his
Piano Sonata #26 commonly known as Lazardieu or Farewell.

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At the end of the month, with Vienna yet again under French
occupation, France, Joseph Haydndied at the age of 77.
Several days before Haydn's death, the Austrian army under
the Emperor's brother Archduke Charles, prevented Napoleon from
crossing the Danube at the Battle of Aspern Essling on the

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great plain to the northeast of Vienna, fueling hopes in the
city that Napoleon might be expelled soon.
However, Napoleon won the close Fort rematch on the same ground
at Vargram in July, leading to apeace treaty sealed by the
marriage of Napoleon and Archduchess Mary Louise, the
teenage daughter of the Austrianemperor.

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The second French occupation of Vienna in the space of four
years left behind a devastated economy and Beethoven's 4000
Florins a year was at risk. Although he managed to write an
overture for Wolfgang Goethe's play Egmont, performed in June
1810, Beethoven's creative energies appear to have ebbed.

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The previous winter. The 40 year old musician
attempted to woo his 18 year oldstudent Teresa Malfati, for whom
he may have dedicated his bagatelle #25, later known as
Ferg Eliza. It has since become one of his
most popular works. In March 1811, Beethoven
completed his Piano trio #7A work similar in vain to the

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Emperor Concerto and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph.
While Rudolph continued to pay his share of Beethoven's
annuity, the other two members of the syndicate, Princess
Lobkovitz and Kinski, were slow making payments, with the former
rumoured to be on the verge of bankruptcy.
In the summer of 1812, Beethovencompleted his Seventh Symphony

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in A major, an expansive work ofa Marshall quality, followed by
his Eighth Symphony in F major, a much shorter and joyful piece
distinguished by an unusually long final movement.
Beethoven travelled to the spa town of Tippets in Bohemia to be
close to Antonia Brentano, an Austrian patroness of the arts

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who he had known for some time and had developed affections
for, but he was already married.Upon his arrival at Tippets, he
wrote an impassioned letter to his immortal beloved, whose
identity remained a mystery until Beethoven's biographer,
Maynard Solomon identified her as Antonia in the 1970s.

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Despite Beethoven's desire to remain with Antonia, who
reciprocated his love emotionally if not physically,
she would soon return to Frankfurt with her husband.
By the time of his parting with Antonia, Beethoven was 42 years
old. During the past decade he had
written some of his grandest andbest known compositions,

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including the eroica, the Fifth Symphony, the Pastoral, the
Emperor Concerto, and the Apassianata and Koitsa Sonatas.
As he entered middle age, he began to transition to a more
introverted style. In Tepletes, he met one of the
giants of European culture of the day, Johann Wolfgang

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Fongerte, the author of Faust, on several occasions, but
despite positive first impressions, the writer
considered the composer too depressive, while the composer
felt that the writer was more interested in discussing the
latest political developments inthe aristocratic milieu.
Napoleon had just invaded Russiawith over half a million men in

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late June, and for once Austria was an ally.
While the Austrian contingent saw relatively little action on
the southern front, Napoleon wasdrawn deep into the Russian
heartland, occupying Moscow in September before being forced
into an infamous winter retreat.With his reputation of
invincibility shattered, Napoleon's Austrian and Prussian

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allies prepared to switch sides in 1813.
In addition to the departure of his immortal beloved, Beethoven
was also having his fair share of personal troubles.
He unsuccessfully sought to prevent his brother Nikolaus
Johann's marriage to a woman with an illegitimate child,
while his patron, Prince Kinski died in November after falling

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from his horse, prompting Beethoven to sue the bereaved
widow for the continued payment of his subsidy.
With his older brother Casper I'll from tuberculosis,
Beethoven persuaded him to transfer the legal guardianship
of his six year old son Karl upon his death.
In the summer of 1813, Vienna heard the news of the Duke of

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Wellington's victory over Napoleon's brother, King Joseph
of Spain. At the Battle of Victoria on the
21st of June, Beethoven was invited to write a battle
Symphony, mixing British and French patriotic songs with the
sound of cannon fire and musketry.
Although eviscerated by modern day critics as one of his worst

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ever compositions, Wellington's victory was enthusiastically
received upon its premiere alongside the Seventh Symphony
at a charity concert on the 8th of December 1813, a few weeks
after Napoleon had been defeatedat the climactic Battle of
Leipzig in eastern Germany, liberating Germany from French

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rule. Fuelled by the sense of optimism
around him, in 1814 Beethoven was persuaded to revive his
opera Fidelio, working with court librettist Geog Friedrich
Teitska to revise it. On the 11th of April he was at
the piano to premiere the Archduke Trio, but his hearing

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had deteriorated to the extent that he struggled to control his
tone and soon chose to stop playing in public.
When the third version of Fidelio was staged on the 23rd
of May, it was received with greater acclaim than its
predecessors. This success, on top of his many
others over the years, ensured that when Europe's rulers and

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statesman converged on Vienna inthe autumn of 1814 for a
Congress which would reshape Europe politically after a
decade and a half of Napoleonic domination, Beethoven was in
major demand. He wrote a cantata entitled to
Gloria Algenblik, the glorious moment to celebrate the

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Congress, which was performed before a distinguished audience
including Tsar Alexander the First of Russia and King
Friedrich Wilhelm the Third of Prussia on the 29th of November
1814. Four weeks later, a semi
disaster occurred as Claymans von Metternich, the Austrian
foreign minister and the architect of the Congress of

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Vienna, ushered in a new era of peace in Europe in the aftermath
of Bonaparte's final defeat at Waterloo in the summer of 1815.
Ludwig's brother Kasper died on the 15th of November 1815,
resulting in a protracted legal battle between Beethoven and
Kasper's widow Johanna, over custody of nine year old Karl.

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After accusing his sister-in-lawof loose morals and neglecting
the child, Beethoven was initially granted custody in
January 1816. In letters to female
acquaintances, Beethoven referred to Karl as his son.
For much of the mid 1810s, Beethoven dedicated himself to
the upbringing of his nephew. While his musical output ground

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to a halt. It was only in 1818 that
Beethoven returned to work, writing his Piano Sonata #29 in
B flat major, the Hammer Clavier, one of the most
challenging pieces in the piano repertoire.
By late 1818, with Beethoven I'll deaf and struggling to
manage his household, Johanna sought to take back her son

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during another round of litigation at the end of the
year, Karl ran away to his mother on the 3rd of December,
to the despair of his uncle, while Johanna brought the child
back to Beethoven the following day.
The mother and son subsequently informed the court of
Beethoven's often erratic behaviour.
Beethoven responded by mobilizing support from his

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imperial patron, Archduke Rudolph, winning back custody in
April 1820. In March 1819, Rudolph was
appointed Archbishop of Almutz in the modern day Czech Republic
by the Pope. Beethoven was motivated to
compose a solemn mass for the Archduke's installation

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scheduled for March 1820, but after writing two movements of
the Misa Solemnis in 1819, he was distracted by the litigation
over his nephew and realized he could not finish the composition
in time. No longer restricted by a
deadline and determined to create a masterpiece, Beethoven
spent four years crafting the Mesa, during which he took a

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greater interest in religion andspirituality, attracted not only
by Christian beliefs but those from ancient Egypt, India, and
China. Beethoven's interest in
spirituality was also likely motivated by thoughts of his own
mortality, prompted by an attackof rheumatism in 1821, the same

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year Napoleon died at the age of52 in exile on the remote island
of Saint Helena. When asked to write an elegy to
commemorate the late emperor, Beethoven replied that he had
already written the appropriate music for such an occasion, most
likely referring to his eroica Symphony.
Between 1820 and 1822, Beethovencomposed his last three piano

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sonatas, numbers 30 to 32. In early 1823, he finished
writing his 33 Diabelli Variations on a Waltz theme,
written by Viennese music publisher Antonio Diabelli.
Diabelli had asked 50 composers to write 1 variation each to his
theme as part of a charitable project, and though Beethoven

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initially refused to get involved, he soon appreciated
that the theme had significant potential, forming the basis for
his longest piano composition upon its publication as
Beethoven's Opus 120. It is the only one of
Beethoven's works publicly dedicated to Antonio Brentano, a
woman who, amongst Beethoven's many love interests, seems to

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have been his truest love. With the variations out of the
way, Beethoven put the finishingtouches to his Misa Solemnis.
But with the Mass to solemnize Rudolph consecration already
having been celebrated, it was not until January 1825 that
Beethoven sent the manuscript toShots in Minds for publication.

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The Misa Solemnis received its premiere in the Russian capital
of Saint Petersburg on the 7th of April 1824, at a concert
organized by Prince Nikolai Gullitsen, an amateur cellist
and Beethoven admirer. In November 1822, Gullitsen
commissioned 3 string quartets from Beethoven, promising to pay

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any sum for them, a clear indication of the international
standing of the composer in his twilight year.
In the meantime, his former secretary Ferdinand Reese
informed him that the London Philharmonic Society had offered
him £50 for a new Symphony. As early as 1815, Beethoven had
been coming up with short musical snippets that would

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eventually find their way into his Ninth Symphony.
By the spring of 1824, the Symphony was ready for its
premiere. On the 7th of May 1824,
Beethoven stood on the podium, beating time alongside conductor
Mikhail Umlauf. The orchestra began with a low
buzzing drone interpreted by broken fifths on the higher

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strings, as if players were still tuning up.
The hum gradually increased in volume until the full orchestra
introduced a theme that Beethoven first jotted down in
1817. In the corral finale, Beethoven
fulfilled his teenage ambition to set Schiller's Ode to Joy to
Music, written for four soloistsand a choir accompanied by the

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orchestra. Beethoven's Ode to Joy begins
with an instruction to friends to castaway the gloom in favor
of an uplifting melody that is known throughout the world as a
celebration of humanity. By the end of the performance,
Beethoven, almost completely deaf, was unaware of the
thunderous applause that greetedhis new composition.

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The Alto Carolina Unger tapped him on the shoulder and made him
turn to face the enthusiastic crowd.
The Ninth Symphony is widely regarded as one of the supreme
accomplishments of Western classical music, a triumphant
conclusion to Beethoven's career.
In the summer of 1824, Beethoventurned his attention to

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fulfilling Prince Golitsyn's commissions despite failing
health. Over the next two years he
produced 3 quartets dedicated tothe Russian Prince #12 in E flat
major #13 in B flat major, and #15 in A minor.
He had enough left within him towrite two more string quartets

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#14 in C# minor, which he considered his finest
composition, and #16 in F major.He adapted his original finale
for string quartet #13 which appeared as the Grosse Fuga or
Great Fugue, another compositionthat proved to be ahead of its
time. Taken together, the quartets and

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the Fuga are regarded by modern musicologists as the pinnacle of
Western instrumental music #14 Beethoven's favorite quoted a
theme from his song cycle to thedistant beloved, an indication
that Antonia was still a permanent fixture in Beethoven's
thoughts during his final years.Despite briefly reconciling with

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his brother Johan, Beethoven's family troubles remained with
him. By late 1824, his nephew Kyle
had turned 18 and dreamed of a military career, an aspiration
that his uncle desperately sought to prevent being
realized. Karl initially agreed to study
at the Polytechnic Institute, but in the summer of 1826 he

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began to seek refuge with his mother before attempting suicide
on the 6th of August. When Karl was discharged from
hospital in late September, Johan van Beethoven invited his
brother and nephew to join him at his estate of Genyksundorf in
the Danube Valley. After leaving Vienna on the 28th
of September with his nephew, Beethoven made the finishing

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touches to his string quartet #16 in F major, cryptically
annotating the words Must it be and it must be to two sets of
three notes. Either unwilling to be parted
from Karl or foreseeing his imminent death, Beethoven
appeared reluctant to leave his brother's house.

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Convinced that Beethoven was seeking to delay Karl's
interview with the army, Johan urged his guests to return to
the capital. Taking an unfinished string
quintet with him, Beethoven and Karl headed back in wintry
conditions on the 1st of December 1826.
By the time Beethoven returned to the capital on the 2nd of

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December, he was seriously ill and put straight to bed.
Doctor Andreas Ignatz Vavruk diagnosed him with pneumonia and
pleurisy. Within a week Beethoven was
strong enough to write letters to friends, but by the 13th he
was confined to bed again with Dropsy.
A week later Vavruk was obliged to administer an abdominal tap

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to release more than 100 lbs of fluid from Beethoven's body.
Over the course of December, Carl showed great concern for
his uncle, but had to leave to join his regiment.
On the 2nd of January 1827, Beethoven dedicated his string
quartet #14 to Carl's regimentalcommander, Lieutenant Field

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Marshall Joseph von Stuttheim. By late January, Doctor Giovanni
Malfatti, whose cousin Teresa Beethoven once courted,
prescribed the patient with alcohol.
Perhaps recognizing that there was little else that could be
done, Beethoven wrote to his Mites publisher shots requesting
a case of wine from his native Rhine region.

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By March, old friends including Count Moritz Lichnovski, Ignatz
Chopansig and Antonio Diabelli were calling on the dying
composer. On the 23rd of March, Beethoven
designated his nephew Carl as his heir in his will.
When the case of wine arrived from mines on the 24th,
Beethoven was already too ill and remarked pity it's too late.

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The end came during the afternoon on the 26th of March
1827. According to the composer Anselm
Huttenbrenner, one of two peoplein the room at the time.
At 5:00, a flash of lightning and a clap of Thunder caused
Beethoven to lift. His right hand clenched into a
fist for several seconds before falling back.

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Dead aged 56, on the 29th of March, Beethoven's body was
buried at the Verring Cemetery to the northwest of Vienna.
His great admirer, Franz Schubert was among the
torchbearers at the funeral. In less than two years, Schubert
himself was laid to rest at the same cemetery.
In a nearby plot. Ludwig Van Beethoven is

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celebrated as one of the greatest composers whoever lived
from a modest background in Bonn.
With assistance from aristocratic patrons, he
established himself in Vienna during the early 1790s,
beginning to fill the void recently left by Mozart's death
by writing music inspired by Haydn and Mozart.

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A piano virtuoso, he delighted the salons of Vienna with his
improvisation skills and from the 1800s onwards composed some
of the most revered orchestral music in the Western tradition,
notably the Gross Fugue, the Fidelio and his Third and 5th
Symphonies. What is most incredible about
his life and career was that it was threatened by his

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progressive deafness and he had to overcome thoughts of killing
himself when he first started tolose his ability to hear to find
new methods of working. Despite these triumphs,
Beethoven was romantically unfulfilled and prone to anger,
causing him to channel his fury into works such as the
Apassionata Sonata. The turmoil of his personal life

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was compounded by a prolonged custody struggle over his nephew
Kyle that distracted him from his work for several years in
the mid 1810s. Nevertheless, during his final
decade, Beethoven was able to write some of his most ambitious
compositions, including the MisaSolemnis, the Ninth Symphony,
and it's Ode to Joy Finale, and demonstrating that he was at the

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peak of his powers before illness carried him away at a
still relatively young age, manypeople consider him to be the
greatest composer of Western classical music to have ever
lived. What do you think of Ludwig Van
Beethoven? Was he the greatest composer in
the history of Western classicalmusic, particularly so given the

(59:32):
personal adversity he had to overcome?
Or should he share that title with others like his near
contemporary Mozart? Please let us know in the
comments section and in the meantime, thank you very much
for watching. None.

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The.