Born: 1770 in Bonn (Germany)
                                  Died: 1827 in Vienna (Austria)

Beethoven's name is synonymous with Classical music: it is his name which invariably first comes to
mind when people are asked to name the archetypal composer. The reason for this is his unique
combination of innovative genius, moral rectitude and high seriousness.

Beethoven was born into a Bonn family of Flemish descent. Both his father Johann and his
grandfather Ludwig were musicians at the Court of the Elector of Cologne which was based in Bonn.
His father, a severe man who turned to drink as his career failed to blossom, married Maria
Magdalena Keverich in 1767 and Ludwig was the first of their children to survive infancy.

The young Ludwig was taught music by his father but by the age of nine he had already outstripped
his father's musical knowledge and was taken under the wing of Christian Neefe, organist at the
Bonn Court, who gave him a conservative but thorough musical training. In 1783 Neefe became
director of both sacred and secular music at Court and Ludwig was appointed cembalist-in-orchestra,
an unpaid post which gave him responsibility for rehearsing and conducting the opera band. The
death of the Elector Max Friedrich in 1784 led to a thorough reappraisal of the Elector's
establishment by his successor, Max Franz, and Beethoven received a small stipend for his work
(together with his father, who was still in the choir), while Neefe's salary was halved.

Beethoven was already composing small works and beginning to come to terms with the demands of
writing music. In 1787 he made a short trip to Vienna, probably at the invitation of one of the nobles
who admired Beethoven's work and who had good connections in the Austrian capital, for while
there Beethoven not only met and played for Mozart, but also for Emperor Joseph II. Whether Mozart
uttered the famous phrase: "Pay attention to him: he will make a noise in the world some day or
other", it is now impossible to say, but it is likely that the 16-year-old Beethoven made a
considerable impression as Haydn refers to a 'Ludwig' in a letter to a friend in Vienna in June 1787
asking him what all the fuss was about.

But 1787 was memorable for Ludwig in more chilling ways: in July his much-loved mother died of
consumption, the illness accelerated by her escalating alcoholism. In November of the same year his
young sister died. During the following two years Ludwig broadened his circle of friends to include
Count Waldstein, a music-loving nobleman eager to help the young composer financially and
spiritually, and the Countess of Hatzfield, the recipient of Ludwig's dedication in his variations on
Vincenzo Righini's Venni Amore. In 1788 the Elector Max Franz reorganized his musical
establisment, appointing Anton Reicha as its director and moving Neefe to the position of pianist and
stage manager. Beethoven played second violin as well as keeping up his duties as organist. The new
company performed most of the best operas of the day, including Mozart's. Son now overtook father
both within the family and the Court: with Johann now an alcoholic and his singing voice gone, the
family was so poverty-stricken that the Elector decided to pay the greater part of Johann's salary to
young Ludwig, thus ensuring that the family would at least eat and be clothed. At the age of 17
Ludwig had become the sole reliable source of income for the Beethoven family. The only other event
of note between then and Beethoven's departure for Vienna in 1792 was a visit by Haydn on his
return from London, during which Ludwig presented his Funeral Cantata, which was duly praised by
the great man.

In 1792, for reasons which remain obscure, the Elector decided to finance Beethoven's removal to
Vienna, there to study at Bonn's expense. By this time Beethoven had a group of nobles convinced
of his musical worth, (including Count Waldstein) who—perhaps encouraged by Haydn's
praise—had helped inform the Elector's decision. In November Beethoven departed for the Austrian
capital, speeded on his journey by the entry by Waldstein in his Leaving Album: 'Dear Beethoven,
you are travelling to Vienna in fulfilment of your long-standing wish... Labour assiduously and
receive Mozart's spirit from the hands of Haydn'. Within weeks of his arrival, his father died, and
Beethoven, his roots in Bonn withering, brought his younger brothers to Vienna to join him.

Beethoven took regular lessons from Haydn, even accompanying him to Eisenstadt in 1793, but was
clearly dissatisfied with Haydn's level of involvement, and when the composer left for London in
1794, Ludwig transferred to Albrechtsberger who, though diligent in his teaching, thought
Beethoven a hopeless case: "He has learnt nothing, and will never do anything in decent style", he
commented to a colleague. Beethoven also took lessons on operatic points from Antonio Salieri. In
the month that Haydn went to London, however, the Elector of Bonn visited Vienna, and two months
later, Beethoven's small allowance was stopped. He was on his own.

Due to the relative frequency with which Beethoven was engaged by the nobility to give recitals in
their houses, this situation did not prove as taxing as it might have done. Prince Lichnowksy and his
wife, both former pupils of Mozart, invited him to live at their Viennese house; it is a measure of
Beethoven's rapid acceptance in Viennese aristocratic circles that such an offer was made to a young
man with much still to prove. For the next few years he made his way by his skill as a performer and
by the strength of his personality, a magnetic and charismatic one whose brutal side had quite as
compelling a quality as did its philosophical and charming one. In 1796 his First Piano Concerto
appeared, and in 1797, with Napoleon on the rampage through Europe, Beethoven produced one of
his first thoroughly original works, Sonata for Piano in E-flat, Op. 7. Between then and spring 1800
Beethoven's most impressive music was written for the piano, his Op. 10 and Op. 14 sonatas being
outstanding, while the Op. 12 sonatas for violin and piano showed his mastery of composition for
both instruments. A major step into more adventurous composition came in 1800 with his First
Symphony receiving publication, together with the septet and the first six string quartets (Op. 18).
Later the same year his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.3 appeared. Beethoven now turned from
performance to concentrate on composition. He moved from Prince Lichnowsky's and took his first
summer holiday in the country—a practice which was to become increasingly important to him in the
future.

The next five years contained the most extraordinary outpouring of masterpieces: his Second
Symphony was published in 1804, but by then the Eroica was well under way (he had been mulling it
over since 1798), while his ballet Promotheus and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives had
been premièred in 1801 and 1803 respectively. By this time Beethoven had also experienced the
vicissitudes of getting his music published in an accurate and acceptable form: his rages, brought on
by the number of mistakes he found at proofing stage, became legendary, particularly when, in 1803,
he found that one Zurich publisher had not only amended idiosyncrasies in one of his piano sonatas,
but had had the effrontery to add four bars to make one passage more palatable to a conservative ear.
One later printed work that Beethoven corrected received this tirade: "I have passed the whole
morning today—and yesterday afternoon—in correcting these two pieces, and am quite hoarse with
stamping and swearing".

In early 1804 the Third Symphony was being prepared for publication. It had always privately been
known as the 'Napoleon Bonaparte' symphony—Beethoven saw the great Corsican as a force for
freedom and the emancipation of the common man—but in May news filtered through to Vienna of
Bonaparte's coronation as Emperor. Disgusted beyond measure, Beethoven tore the title-page from
his fair copy and substituted instead Sinfonia eroica per festeggiore il souvenire d'un gran uomo.
Prince Lobkowitz having received the dedication and exclusive rights to its use, Symphony No.3,
Op. 55 ("Eroica") was to remain unpublished until 1806.

It was characteristic of Beethoven to be engaged upon more than one composition at a time. His
restless creative energy would continually spill from one idea to another, one form of expression to
another, so it is no surprise to find him working next on the opera Fidelio and its possible
production (1806, but destined to be shelved for the best part of a decade) as well as the beautiful
Fourth Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Fourth Symphony and the beginning of the Fifth
Symphony. Yet all this was only the beginning of his ascendancy in the world of Classical music, for
there was much to come of equal merit.

By this time Beethoven was already aware of the distressing rate at which his hearing was
deteriorating. In 1802 he wrote a statement—later dubbed the Heiligenstadt Testament—to his two
brothers, Karl and Johann, in which he detailed his physical frailty and his attitude towards the death
which he saw as alarmingly close, although in reality he still had 25 years to live. His hearing was
long thought to be a casualty of hereditary syphilis, but more recent research has come down on the
side of other non-venereal diseases of which Beethoven himself had no knowledge and over which he
had no control. By 1807, when in one concert he premièred Symphonies 1, 2, 3 and 4, (the
programme lasted over two and a half hours), Beethoven had difficulty in hearing the music. The
following year's concert in Vienna premièred the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Choral Fantasia,
plus the last-minute addition of Concerto for Piano No.4, and a couple of arias. Beethoven himself
was at the piano, but his deafness had reached the point where he could no longer properly follow
the orchestra's tempo. The concert was given in December, the hall was bitterly cold and the
performance so ragged as to be almost bizarre in places. Yet his will prevailed: all the music was
played, and he remained at the keyboard throughout.

In 1809, with Austrian exertions against Napoleon at fever-pitch, Beethoven intimated that he would
leave Vienna for better-paid work elsewhere. The general consternation caused Archduke Rudolph,
Prince Lobkowitz and Prince Kinsky to club together to pay Beethoven a small but helpful annuity.
Though the composer made it clear that he would have preferred to have been made imperial
Kapellmeister, he remained in Vienna. He not only stayed, but when the French bombarded the city
in the autumn, he completed the composition of his Fifth and last piano concerto, the Emperor. He
also wrote a piano sonata which he named Les Adieux when Archduke Rudolf (a close friend as well
as a patron) left the besieged capital.

The disastrous effect of the Napoleonic wars on the Austrian economy meant that by the end of 1810
the true value of Beethoven's annuity had shrunk to a tenth of its value. A reorganization of the
Austrian currency only made the position worse, but Archduke Rudolf continued to support
Beethoven, as did Lobkowitz. But with Kinsky he was less fortunate: the Prince had removed to
Prague, dying in 1812 before making arrangements for Beethoven's revised payments. Undeterred,
Beethoven sued Kinsky's heirs, and after three years of dogged legal action, secured not only a
proper restitution of his annuity, but also payment in arrears. This success followed a year of
triumphs, for 1814 had been in many ways a public culmination of Beethoven's career: Fidelio
finally saw the light of day, his Seventh Symphony was premièred, and he was commissioned to
write new music and mount concerts for the Congress of Vienna. Two concerts were held, and
Beethoven was presented by the Archduke to all the visiting royalty and potentates, including the
Empress of Russia.

From this point on his problems multiplied. A confirmed bachelor and a difficult man—who
frequently fell out with friends and patrons—he nevertheless retained strong family feelings. When
his brother Karl died in 1815, leaving his nine-year-old son (also named Karl) in Ludwig's care, the
composer entered into a long and vexatious dispute with the boy's mother, whom he detested.
Unfortunately, the boy held his mother in too great esteem to ever permanently take sides with
Beethoven. Uncle Ludwig spent the best part of three years in suits and counter-suits and in making
arrangements for the education of the child—who proved a very ordinary boy—and it is no surprise
that the sum total of his compositions during this period of stress was the three piano sonatas, Op.
106, Op. 109 and Op. 110, plus a number of songs and arrangements. His finances strained (Prince
Lobkowitz's share of his annuity had ceased with the Prince's death in 1816), his nerves in tatters,
Beethoven was prematurely aged by the exigencies of these years.

Nonetheless, by 1819 he had completed a commission to supply a Mass for the installation of
Archduke Rudolf as Archbishop of Olmütz: this was his great Missa Solemnis. In the next few years
he took up the task of completing a symphony in D minor which he had actually started in 1812: as
late as 1822 he finally came up with the idea of including Schiller's Ode to Joy in a choral final
movement. His Ninth Symphony, Choral was at last taking on its final shape, and was completed in
the summer of 1823. Beethoven had originally planned to première it in Berlin, but disgusted by the
lack of interest in his new music occasioned by the 'Rossini-fever' then sweeping Austria, premièred
it instead in Vienna. It was sufficiently successful to produce a second concert, but neither made a
great deal of money after the substantial costs had been defrayed. Beethoven was now anxious to
make more money on account of the needs of his nephew, and his anxiety to take his fair share, or
perhaps more than his fair share, led to conflicts with his erstwhile friends.

That this anxiety was well-founded was borne out by the series of disasters perpetrated by nephew
Karl: in late 1824 he joined Vienna University, but soon dropped out and moved to a polytechnic
with the intention of learning a trade. By the end of 1825 this idea had also foundered and,
seemingly without a path to tread, the young man tried to shoot himself. He even failed to do this
properly, and was arrested by the police as an attempted suicide. Within a few days he had been
ordered out of Vienna, joining the army soon after. He spent the latter part of 1826 with his Uncle
Ludwig at the house of Uncle Johann, but this broke up in a series of ugly scenes and in December
Ludwig and Karl returned to Vienna. The journey was made in haste in the freezing cold and
precipitated Beethoven's final illness. He languished for four months, scarcely aided by the
attentions of one of the few doctors in Vienna still prepared to visit the rude and grumpy old man.

Composing was now beyond him, and although in 1824-25 he had written the last three string
quartets—the famous Op. 127, Op. 130, Op. 132 and Grosse Fuge, Op. 133—and had sketched out,
in his mind at least, his Tenth Symphony (requested by the Philharmonic Society of London), there
was to be no more music from his pen. On his death-bed just days before the end, a particularly
offensive acquaintance told him: "Your new quartet did not please". By now resigned to approaching
death, Beethoven replied "It will please them some day."