Short History Of... - Ludwig van Beethoven

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

One of the world’s most influential composers, Ludwig van Beethoven changed the course of Western music. Despite losing his hearing, he created some of history’s most celebrated works, and his compositions are renowned for their emotional depth, innovation, and freshness to this day. But how did an unpolished youth from the German Rhineland rise to become one of the most famous names in classical music? Why was his private life beset by disappointment? And how did he continue to produce such extraordinary works, even as deafness overtook him? This is a Short History Of Ludwig van Beethoven. A Noiser production, written by Nicola Rayner. With thanks to John Suchet, broadcaster and author of eight books about Beethoven, including In Search of Beethoven: A Personal Journey.   Get every episode of Short History Of a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material, and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noisier.com/subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is May the 7th, 1824, at the Theater Am Kertennäthe in Vienna. From the wings, the conductor Michael Umlauf watches the audience file into the auditorium, lit by flickering candlelight. But though the concert is about to start, the Royal Box remains conspicuously empty for this evening's premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Rumours have it the Emperor and Empress are reluctant to be associated with a potential disaster. Umlaff checks his pocket watch.

It is time for him to fetch Beethoven. He makes his way through the backstage warren and finds the 54 year old composer alone, scribbling furiously. Waving at him to get his attention, Umlauf taps his wrist. They need to go. The composer finds his baton and follows him out. He's scowling a little. It's no secret that he wanted to do the job alone and is unhappy that Umlauf is going on with him as co-conductor. In truth, the conductor will be at the helm and not the composer. The men make their way back towards the main stage

where the orchestra and choir are already in place, warming up. Now the musicians fall silent and Beethoven strides onto the stage. His wild hair and unconventional green frock coat draw sniggers from the crowd. Umlaut follows behind him and glancing at the worried faces of his musicians, he makes the sign of the cross above them, to the further merriment of the audience. But Beethoven hears none of that. With absolute focus on the music, he simply takes his place in front of the orchestra,

raises his arms and brings them down. To the side of him and slightly behind, Umlauf makes the same gesture to ensure he also has the musician's attention. A hush falls over the auditorium as the orchestra plays the opening chords. With Beethoven gesturing wildly next to him, Umlaut's nerves start to dissipate. The audience will have heard nothing like this before. And the best is yet to come. Umlauf drives his musicians through the movements

until the choir makes its entrance in the fourth. It is a ground-breaking moment in symphonic music, the first major symphony to incorporate vocalists. Exhilarated, Umlaff brings his arms down at the final chord, and the audience erupts. Rising to their feet, they wave their hats and handkerchiefs in unbridled appreciation, crying the name of the composer. But turning to Beethoven now, Umlaff sees that he is oblivious. Still waving his arms at the orchestra, he is conducting the music as it sounds in his

head. Umlaff takes a step towards him, but Carolina Unger, the contralto, reaches him first. Gently touching him on the shoulder, she nods towards the cheering audience. Beethoven turns at last, and in a moment of realization, his confused expression melts into utter joy. One of the world's best loved and most influential composers, Ludwig van Beethoven changed the course of Western music.

Despite losing his hearing in his late twenties, he created some of history's most celebrated works, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets and concertos. His compositions are renowned for their emotional depth, innovation and freshness to this day. But how did an unpolished youth from the German Rhineland rise to become one of the most famous names in classical music? Why was his private life beset by bitter disappointments? And how did he continue to produce such extraordinary works even as deafness overtook him? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network.

This is a short history of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is 1770 in the small but culturally vibrant town of Bonn in what is today Germany. in the small but culturally vibrant town of Bonn in what is today Germany. The life of one of the world's greatest composers begins in December, but precisely when is uncertain, because his birth certificate has never been found. Maria Magdalena and Johann van Beethoven name their son after his grandfather, who is the Kapilmeister, the director of music at the Prince Elector's Court. Beethoven's father is musical too, a singer at court, but with limited success and hindered by a drinking problem.

From an early age, it's clear that little Ludwig has a gift for music. By four he's showing promise. He learns the violin and the clavier, a keyboard instrument. It is the era of the Enlightenment. A time of growing fascination with human potential and talent. As such there is a deepening interest in child prodigies, most notably the Austrian Mozart, 14 years Beethoven senior. By seven, Ludwig's father is signing him up for public recitals and lying about his age, claiming his son is just six.

The reason perhaps for that missing birth certificate. One of Ludwig's first teachers is an actor and singer who lodges with the family, but also becomes a drinking companion for his father. The pair return from the taverns late at night and pull the young musician from his bed to play the piano. It doesn't take long for Ludwig to learn that music can be a better companion than people. During childhood, he is mercilessly teased for his swarthy complexion and nicknamed the Spaniard until his father takes him out of school aged 10. Though it is a move that leaves him with illegible handwriting and a terrible head for figures,

it does give him a chance to focus solely on music. The broadcaster and author John Suchet has written eight books about Beethoven, the latest of which is In Search of Beethoven, a Personal Journey. His father did recognize his talent and the best thing that he did for his boy was to employ a teacher. When Beethoven was about 10 or 11 years of age. His father took him out of school and engaged this man who was an organist and composer to teach the boy from about the age of 11 or 12,

and it was the best thing he could have done because this teacher was truly inspirational. was truly inspirational. By the time the teacher, Christian Gottlub Nefer, is introduced to the Beethoven household, Ludwig has been joined by two younger brothers, Karl and Johann. But other children have been lost in infancy, adding strain to a household already plagued by alcoholism. For Ludwig, music increasingly becomes a refuge, as do his friends. He grows close to the upper-class

von Breuning family, to whose children he teaches piano. The family's son will be a lifelong friend, while Helene, the widowed matriarch, becomes a motherly figure. She teaches manners to the unrefined Ludwig and encourages his love of literature and poetry. Her warmth offers him an escape from his troubled home. A little later, Nefer is promoted to court organist. He arranges for his 13-year-old student to become his assistant, Beethoven's first salaried position.

As well as providing a musical education, the well-read Nefer also introduces his charge to Enlightenment ideas of freedom and equality. He encourages Ludwig to compose music too, and helps him to publish his compositions. Proud of his pupils' prodigious talent, Nefer writes an article for a famed musical publication in which he calls Ludwig a genius, a second Mozart. It is around now that the teenage Ludwig may have made the acquaintance of the Austrian composer.

Did Beethoven meet Mozart? Well, thereby hangs the tale. The legend is that Beethoven went to Vienna in April 1787 when he was 16 years of age. He met Mozart once, briefly. Mozart was in his early 30s and not in good health, and Mozart, hearing him play, said to his wife, watch out for this boy, one day he'll give the world something to talk about, and offered to take him on as a pupil. But Beethoven, 16 years of age, got an urgent letter from his father saying, your mother is seriously ill, back in Bonn, you need to come home immediately." It is possible that the meeting is apocryphal. For the rest of their lives, neither composer mentions it.

But what is true is that Beethoven's mother now dies of consumption. His father's alcoholism spirals further, culminating in his arrest for drunkenness and banishment from the city. Beethoven Sr. lives out the final few years of his life in exile, leaving the 18-year-old Beethoven to become head of the household. But another father figure steps into Beethoven's life, when he meets Count Waldstein at the Von Breunings. The aristocrat becomes an important early patron, commissioning his first work for the stage, the ballet Musik zu einem Ritterballet.

Patronage during this time is an important matter for musicians. And with the news from Vienna of the death of Mozart at the age of just 35 The world is keener than ever to find his replacement Waldstein support couldn't come at a more crucial moment With the French Revolutionary Army invading German territory Now is the perfect time for the ambitious young composer to move out of the danger zone to Vienna, the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire. But first, Beethoven needs the permission of his employer, the Prince Elector.

Napoleon was invading the Rhineland. Bonn was next on his list. The Prince-Elector and his family had to get out of Bonn into exile, and that was the perfect moment for Wallstein to say, look, this boy Beethoven who plays viola in your orchestra, and he's a brilliant pianist, I'd love him to go to Vienna, would you give him permission? And the prince-elect said, "'Do you not think I've got more important things to think of at the moment?

Do what you like.'" And the other reason he was able to go was that the greatest composer of the age, Mozart being dead, was Haydn. And Haydn, on his return from a triumphant tour of London, stopped off in Bonn, met young Beethoven, saw one of his manuscripts and said, cool, this is amazing. If you can get to Vienna, I'll take you on as a pupil.

So that was the other incentive. So when Beethoven went there at the age of just under 22, he went to take lessons with Haydn. And that's how he began in Vienna. He went to take lessons with Haydn, and that's how he began in Vienna. A new chapter in Beethoven's life is about to begin. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. If you're a business owner, it's important to find the right people for you. But how can you find amazing candidates fast?

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Just go to indeed.com forward slash short right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com forward slash short. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need In late 1792 when Beethoven arrives in Vienna it is known as one of the most exciting and cultured cities in Europe But despite his supreme talent,

Beethoven is unprepared for the sophistication of the society in which he is now immersed. With his harsh Rhineland accent and ill-fitting clothes, he has never worn a wig, let alone the powdered ones sported by the city's fashionable elite. At first he lives in an attic room, in a house owned by Waldstein's relative Prince Karl Lechnowski. One of the wealthiest men in the city and a great patron of the arts, Lechnowski will

be instrumental in Beethoven's transition into Viennese life, offering financial and social support. Beethoven now throws himself into his work, seeking to refine his compositional technique. And though he takes lessons with Joseph Haydn as planned, the relationship is strained. He was a very difficult pupil and every time Haydn said you can't do that, that's wrong. I can do that, I am Beethoven. So imagine it hiding in his 60s Beethoven in his 20s a new man a new composer in a hurry. Haydn requests that his student includes the phrase pupil of

Haydn on the title of his early works. Beethoven though never plagued by self doubt and increasingly renowned for his fiery temper, refuses point-blank. More successful in that relationship are Beethoven's performances at Salon Suarez. Arranged through Lichnowsky's contacts, these events help him build a reputation as a virtuoso pianist with a flair for improvisation. Soon he begins to compose in earnest. A set of three piano trios, two full piano concertos and three piano sonatas.

With Lechnovsky's help, he now secures the large Imperial Burgtheater in March 1795 for his first major public performance. Beethoven, however, causes consternation by rewriting his piano concerto right up until the last minute, something that will become a lifelong pattern. But the performance is enough of a success for it to be repeated the next day. His professional star is on The Ascendant, but Beethoven proves unlucky in love. He becomes reacquainted with a friend from his Bonn years, a singer called Magdalena Willman. But when Beethoven proposes marriage,

he is promptly turned down. Later, when she's asked why, she calls him ugly and half crazy. His mood already sour, he is joined in Vienna by his brothers, Karl and Johann, with whom he is not close. Karl attaches himself to his talented brother and becomes his business manager, though Beethoven soon escapes him on a tour of Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, where he performs to royalty.

But just as he appears to be reaching the pinnacle of his career, Beethoven suffers what will turn out to be the greatest loss of his life. Now, twenty-seven, the composer begins to notice a change in his hearing. At first he ignores the buzzing in his ears and keeps it to himself. After all, he's still managing to compose works like his dramatic Pathetique Sonata, which reflects a step up in complexity. He completes his first symphony too, which premieres on April 2, 1800 at the Burgtheater.

It gets mixed reviews, but undeterred Beethoven embarks on his second symphony and a ballet. Even so, despite being busy and productive professionally, privately he is agonized over the loss of his hearing. If there's one thing that most people know about Beethoven, it is that he's the one who went deaf. That affliction, which was slow to start and slow to develop, it only became full deafness after about 15 years, but all through that period he continued to compose.

And when you discuss Beethoven's music, from the early days to the end of his life, you must never forget that he was slowly losing his hearing, and that had the most profound influence on his music. He's given all manner of medical advice. One doctor suggests cold baths, another warm. A third suggests putting almond oil in his ears, which only exacerbates the issue. Worst of all is the physician who soaks the bark of a poisonous plant and straps it to Beethoven's arms.

As the bark dries, it shrinks, tightening the skin underneath and causing terrible blisters to form, which the doctor then lances. It's so damaging that Beethoven is temporarily unable to play the piano, and the deafness only continues. But there is some consolation during this difficult time in the form of his 16-year-old piano student, Julia Guiciardi. The attraction is apparently mutual, but the match is vetoed by her father on account of Beethoven's unpredictable lifestyle, peculiar temperament, and his deafness. Despite the painful rejection, the romance inspires a piano sonata, which he dedicates to Julia.

A piece of music so hauntingly beautiful that one critic compares it with the moon setting over the Lake Lucerne. The Moonlight Sonata. His mood spiraling. In early 1802, one of his doctors suggests a break from the hustle and bustle of city life. And so Beethoven rents a small cottage just outside the city. He continues to compose, but after a walk with a friend, during which he fails to hear the lovely sound of a shepherd playing his pipe, his sadness becomes despair. It is the 6th of October, 1802. In the small village of Heiligenstadt, children are playing in the fallen autumn leaves, while

a horse and rider truck down the lane. But inside his cottage, seated at a simple wooden desk, Beethoven can only hear the usual humming and buzzing in his ears. He rummages in a drawer for a tinderbox, strikes flint against steel to light a lantern next to his desk, and closes the curtains to block out the world beyond. Sighing, he now reaches for a small inkwell and feathered quill and begins to write a letter to his two brothers. The document will act as his last will and testament, and he embarks upon it furiously. On the paper, Beethoven rails against those who have misunderstood him and against the

loss of the one sense, as he puts it, that should have been more highly developed in me than anyone. Would it not be better, he muses, to end it all, to leave behind the burden of a world he can no longer fully experience? But as he writes, a flicker of defiance begins to stir, and, better still, a melody starts to form in his head. He stands abruptly and makes his way to the upright piano in the corner of the room to try it out. The rebellious tune keeps him there at the piano.

It won't leave him alone. When it's finally done with him, his eyes fall on the manuscripts scattered across the kitchen table, the notes dancing silently on the pages. They remind Beethoven of all the music still trapped in his mind, waiting to be written, waiting to be heard. To end his life would be to deny that to the world. With fresh resolve, he returns to his desk to conclude the letter. His quill flying across the page, he writes now not about surrender, but about fighting

on. It becomes not only a letter, but a manifesto. Though he has stared into the abyss, he has also confronted his deafness, and remembered the reason he wants to live, after all. Soon he returns to Vienna with a new resolve, and instead of sending the letter, he carries it with him, a reminder of his commitment to persevering for the sake of his art. Early in 1803, Beethoven is made composer in residence at the Theater an der Wien, an appointment which comes with a small apartment in the building.

His brother, Carl, still managing Beethoven's business affairs, moves in with him, but it's not a peaceful existence. Carl is pushy and annoys publishers with aggressive demands for money. And the temperamental Beethoven isn't an easy housemate either, with works now coming thick and fast. It's fair to say his talents as a composer exceed his organizational skills. On the morning of one concert in 1803, his secretary, Ferdinand Ries, is summoned to Beethoven's apartment

where he finds the composer sitting up in bed adding trombones to the score of a new oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. With the final rehearsal due to take place in a matter of hours, it's up to Rhys to urgently source trombonists. There is no time to hire copyists, so in the end the hastily assembled musicians play from Beethoven's handwritten manuscript sheets. The reviews are mixed, but it is something of a relief to everyone when the contribution of the trombones is picked out for praise. In the summer of 1803, Beethoven begins work on a new symphony, his third. Composing over an intensive three months, he dedicates it to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was risen from humble roots to lead revolutionary France in a new era of liberty, equality,

and fraternity. A champion, Beethoven believes, of the common man. Despite living under an absolute monarchy and his dependence on wealthy patrons, Beethoven never loses the Enlightenment principles which he adopted under Christian Nefer's tuition. So when Napoleon declares himself emperor, it falls to a brave Rhys to break the news to Beethoven. Furious at what he views as a betrayal of republican ideals, he rips the dedication

of the symphony in two, scratching out Bonaparte's name so violently that a hole is left in the script. This symphony becomes known as the Eroica. The Eroica symphony, which began his heroic period, sets a new standard for symphonic composition. He begins it with two massive chords. As if he's saying, pay attention, pay attention, what I think he's saying is to hell with my deafness. You don't begin a symphony with two massive chords and it's often said of the Eroica,

composed in roughly 1803 to 1804, it took music into a new century and it's still looked back on today as just groundbreaking. Every musical form, he broke the rules. If you go to a Mozart concert, Mozart's music is utterly divine. It is perfect. As Salieri says in the Antony Schaffer play Amadeus, Jealously, it's as if God put the music into his head, it flows down his arm, into the pen and onto the paper. Beethoven?

Just look at the manuscripts, covered in crossings out, ink blotches, torn paper. He struggled to get it down, but once he got it down, this was a new kind of music. Beethoven now works on an opera, Leonore, but his life is once again about to be shaped by larger forces. Fearing Napoleon's expansionism, Austria joins Britain and other powers in a coalition against him, and soon the Napoleonic Wars are underway. By October 1805, a mere month before the opera's November premiere, Napoleon is marching towards Vienna. Soon he and his army storm into the city, which surrenders to the occupation with little resistance.

With most of the opera-going public having fled, Leonore opens to a handful of friends and a few French soldiers. It closes after just three nights. Beethoven keeps working, but this turbulent time is further marred by fractures in some key relationships. First, history repeats itself when he falls in love with and is rejected by one of his pupils. This time the object of his affections is a beautiful young woman called Josephine Brunsvig. Second, to add salt to the wound, his brother Karl during this time makes a match that Beethoven

deems most unsuitable. Johanna Reiss, his brothers intended, is the daughter of a Viennese upholsterer who had a brush with the law in her youth. Ignoring his brother's disapproval, Karl marries her anyway and steps down from his role as Beethoven's manager just in time for the arrival of their son. Knowing Beethoven is under strain, his patron, Prince Liknowski, invites the composer to his country estate at Graz,

near the border between the Czech Republic and Poland today. Unfortunately, one evening, the prince also entertains a number of French officers. The French, by this stage, have withdrawn from Vienna, but Beethoven has neither forgiven nor forgotten Napoleon's treachery. So when the officers expect the great composer to play for them, he angrily refuses. Liknofsky insists, so Beethoven charges to his room. He packs up his things and leaves the house,

but not before scribbling a note that says, there have been and will always be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven. thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven. Back at home in Vienna, still in a rage, Beethoven smashes his marble bust of the prince to pieces. The rift is irreparable. And soon Luchnowski brings a halt to the annuity he's been paying him.

Beethoven's life seems to be becoming increasingly chaotic, yet he continues to compose, now bringing to life one of the most renowned pieces of his career. It's well known that the most famous perhaps orchestral composition of them all is the Fifth Symphony and that famous opening, which most people know, everybody knows, it's not even a tune, it's not a melody, it's a motif. And what he does with it in that symphony is extraordinary. A lot of Beethoven's music was rejected when it was first heard, simply because he just

broke the rules so conclusively all the time that they found it very, very difficult. The Fifth Symphony is closely followed by his Sixth, a very different work which he calls The Pastoral, imbued as it is with his love of the countryside. In December 1808, he organizes a colossal concert featuring the premieres of his fifth and sixth symphonies, among other works. It draws a strong audience, but the concert itself is a marathon of a performance in a freezing theatre, undermined by inadequate rehearsals, repeated interruptions, and the fiery temper of the composer shouting at the

musicians. But around this time, Beethoven receives an enticing offer from Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte. He invites him to serve as kapelmeister in Westphalia, a client state of the French Empire in central Germany. To keep him in Vienna, three of the city's wealthiest aristocrats step in, including Archduke Rudolf, the youngest son of Austria's Emperor Leopold II. They pledge him a generous stipend of four thousand Florins annually, on the

condition he remains in the city. But by early the next year Austria has once again declared war on France. As Napoleon marches on Vienna, determined to teach the Austrians a lesson once and for all, the Imperial family flee, including Beethoven's patron, Archduke Rudolf. Beethoven himself stays behind, sheltering in his brother Karl's cellar, covering his head with pillows during the assault. After the subsequent occupation, Vienna is a changed city with soaring prices and an uneasy atmosphere. In this unhappy period, Beethoven again falls in unrequited love, this time with

the daughter of an Italian family, Therese Malfatti. He composes a piece of music for her, simple enough that she might be able to play it on the piano. Entitled Bagatelle, the work is more commonly known by what Beethoven scribbled on the title page, FUR ELISE, meaning FOR ELISE, which is likely to have been Therese's nickname. Just as before, though, the romance comes to nothing.

Just another in a long series of unfulfilled longings. Destabilized by the wars, Austria's currency weakens. Prices skyrocket and some of Vienna's wealthiest individuals lose their fortunes overnight. One of Beethoven's three wealthy patrons is bankrupted and a second is thrown off his horse and killed. Yet Beethoven continues to create at a furious rate, completing a seventh symphony and beginning work on the eighth among other projects. His health, however, is troubling him, particularly stomach problems.

So in the summer of 1812, when heice in the Czech Republic that he meets a mystery woman. He arrives late at night, the carriage wheel is broken so he's late and he gets to the hotel and his room has been taken for us to go down the hill to a new hotel and he starts to write a letter that night to a woman and he tells her about what a dreadful journey he's had. The next morning he writes an addendum to it telling her more about it and the next night in a third addendum is only about half a page long. His writing has become really right across the page, it's totallyorganized. And in the second line of this second addendum,

he calls her, meine unsterbliche Geliebte, my eternally beloved, or my immortal beloved. It is a long letter, full of intense declarations of love and an indication of a mutual passion. But there is no address, and the letter appears never to have been sent. It is shoved into a secret drawer of his desk, where it is found after his death. Most frustratingly of all, the recipient remains nameless, her identity evading historians ever since.

A very distinguished American musicologist, Maynard Solomon, wrote a definitive biography of him in which he had even investigated the times of the mail coach from Tetblitz to Carlsbad because Beethoven refers to this other town with a K saying I'll send the letter by the mail coach damn it, I just missed it it just left this guy did all the research possible and identifies the woman as Antoni Brentano because he knew her in Vienna very well, which has to be the case from the evidence of the letter She was in Prague in the first week of July 1812, when he was, and then she was in Carlsbad in the weeks following

to where the letter was sent. And he names her as the immortal beloved, and he says in his biography, I think without boasting we can now regard this mystery as solved. Well, he was wrong there, because since then so many other names have been put forward. Other possibilities include Beethoven's former crushes, Giulia Guiciardi and Therese Malfatti.

But the other top suspect, along with Antoni Brentano, is Josephine Brunswick, with whom the composer fell in love many years before. There is no proof of her being in the correct place at the correct time, but for some, the fact that she gave birth exactly nine months on from the writing of the letter to a daughter who resembled Beethoven in her adult years has been too tempting a coincidence to resist. The composer's trip away is cut short by what he deems to be a family emergency. On discovering that his brother, Johann, is about to make an inappropriate match in marriage, Beethoven rushes to the central Austrian town of Linz.

Ever the moralist, despite his revolutionary ideals, he is determined to prevent the wedding on the basis that his brother's fiancé, who was initially his housekeeper, already has an illegitimate child. The composer takes the matter to the bishop and even the police, but despite terrible scenes between the brothers, he's unable to get his way. Beethoven was not a very nice man. He upset his family, he upset his patrons, he upset fellow musicians, he upset everyone he came into contact with. One restaurant, you know, if he was given eggs that had gone off in a restaurant, he would hurl them at the waiter.

Once he threw them out of the window and they landed on diners outside. And once people were eating in the restaurant and he was at a table next door and they said to the maitre d', I'm really sorry, this man at the table next door is investigating the contents of his nose. Please may we move to another table.

That was Beethoven. He was eccentric and difficult and they all knew he was difficult. Mozart, by contrast, was almost infantile. He had a childlike quality to him but everybody loved him and Haydn was adored by everyone. Mozart christened him Papa, Papa Haydn, which stuck. But everyone gave Beethoven a wide berth when they could because he was not an easy man. Though he's been plagued with pains for a while, Beethoven's health now begins to deteriorate.

He gives up completely on hygiene, drinks more heavily, and experiences a rare creative block at this time too. There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, however. After the British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces under Wellington defeat Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte in Spain, the mood in Vienna is jubilant. With the people in the mood for music, Beethoven gives three successful concerts, at which

he conducts the first public performance of his seventh symphony, shortly followed by the eighth. There is also the premiere of a piece celebrating the recent battle called Wellington's Victory. Beethoven's only operatic work, Leonor, is revived as Fidelia and performed to Europe's triumphant heads of state at a gala evening in September. But this professional pinnacle is followed almost immediately by a personal low. In November 1815 his brother Carl dies. Though he had previously written a will that would leave Beethoven in sole In November 1815, his brother Karl dies. Though he had previously written a will that would leave Beethoven in sole charge of his

son, a more recent version gives guardianship to both Beethoven and Karl's widow, Johanna. To the horror of everyone involved, Beethoven now embarks on a prolonged legal battle over the matter. Eventually, his nephew, Karl, is removed from his mother at the age of nine. His uncle Beethoven promptly puts him into boarding school, though the tug of war continues for years. It takes its toll on the composer. By 1818, his hearing has deteriorated so badly that he has to find alternative means to communicate. When Beethoven's deafness was as total as it would ever be, he began to carry around

little notebooks with him, so that if people wanted to talk to him, he'd hand them the notebook and they would write the question down. He would answer it verbally, of course. They were called conversation books. I mean, he got through several hundred in his lifetime, sadly, after his death, his secretary, Anton Schindler, burned over a hundred, or may even be 200, but he burned a whole load of the conversation books

because they reflected badly on Beethoven's character. Beethoven's character. But it is now that Beethoven receives a new concert grand piano from a London piano manufacturer. The gift inspires the creation of his monumental Hammerklavier Sonata. It stands as a turning point in his compositional style, his longest and most complex sonata. While the years after the Hammer Clavier would bring to light some of the composer's best-loved masterpieces, they are marked by immense personal challenges. In 1821 he endures a near-fatal bout of rheumatic fever. He also learns of the death of Josephine Brunswick, high on the list as a possibility

for being his immortal beloved. This series of events will bring Beethoven to the brink of ruin. Neglecting his health, he turns increasingly to drink. It is autumn, 1822. A quiet, cold night on the outskirts of Vienna. A young constable picks up his pace to keep warm as he patrols the cobbled streets. In the distance he hears a noise, some kind of commotion. A man runs towards him, his arm raised. There's a tramp, he tells the constable, who is disturbing the peace. The officer is led to a scruffy man slumped on a bench beneath the dim glow of a street lamp.

Wrapped in a tattered coat, the tramp is hatless, with an unruly nest of hair that looks as if it has been untouched by a comb for weeks. He is shouting, though what he is shouting about is unclear. The constable addresses the tramp politely, but struggles to make himself understood. Eventually through gesture, he makes it clear that he is going to have to take him into custody if he doesn't quieten down. The vagrant fixes the constable with a glare, his dark eyes flashing in the lamplight. Arrest me, he demands, but I am Beethoven. His appearance does not match his imperious tone and even from few steps away he reeks of alcohol and neglect. Another constable now arrives, drawn by the sound of incoherent ranting. The two briefly discuss whether this could indeed be the man the whole of Vienna hails as a genius.

There is nothing about him to suggest the wealth or stature of the famous composer. him to suggest the wealth or stature of the famous composer. Incensed, the tramp now rises angrily, if unsteadily, to his feet. And making a quick assessment, the officers seize him by the arm and frogmarch him to the police station. He is swiftly booked for the night into a holding cell. But that is not the end of the matter. He spends the night rattling the bars of his cell and shouting in ever increasing volume that he is Beethoven.

His noise disturbs everyone in the station, so the young constable is sent back out into the city to track down the commissioner of the police. He finds him enjoying an early evening drink at one of his favorite local taverns. Though not overjoyed to be disturbed, the commissioner decides to call upon a musical director, he knows, to settle the matter. Hours later, the men convene at the station. The musical director is led to the holding cell,

where the vagrant sits on the other side of the bars, his face set in a furious scowl. His arms are crossed tightly over his chest, his boots scuffed and damp. Adjusting his spectacles, the musical director takes one glance and confirms to the police, that is Beethoven. The constable is told in no uncertain terms to release the prisoner.

With shaking hands, he unlocks the door and Vienna's most famous composer storms out of his cell, leaving a stunned silence in his wake. In the last years of his life, Beethoven experiences remarkable creative achievement, despite deteriorating health and personal struggles. It is during this period that he completes some of his most famous works, with May 1824 marking the premiere of his monumental Ninth Symphony. A towering masterpiece, it redefines symphonic music with its inclusion of choral voices in the famous Ode to Joy.

The words of the final movement are from a poem by Schiller called Andi-Freude, which is translated as Ode to Joy, which is a hymn to liberty, a hymn to freedom, a plea for all mankind to become brothers. And that is what appealed to Beethoven, and that is the poem that he uses in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, and it completely sums up his philosophy. That is the significance of the Ninth. The work debuts to immediate acclaim, though Beethoven, unable to hear the applause, has to be turned around to see the audience's reaction. In these final years, Beethoven's compositions become introspective and complex.

His late string quartets are considered some of the most profound works in Western classical music. Yet his difficult temperament, exacerbated by his frustrations with deafness and isolation, continues to strain his personal relationships. His guardianship of his nephew is particularly tumultuous. Despite lavishing affection on young Carl, Beethoven is far from an ideal guardian. He puts immense pressure on the unmusical young man to follow in his footsteps and denies his wish to join the army.

With frequent, bitter quarrels, they reach a breaking point in 1826 when Karl attempts to shoot himself in the head, just before his university examination. He survives, and Beethoven reluctantly permits him to begin a military career after all. Just a year later, Beethoven's health declines rapidly. Following months of severe illness from cirrhosis of the liver, he dies on March 26, 1827 in his apartment in Vienna. He's 56 years old. His funeral is attended by an estimated 20,000 people. Among them are many notable musicians, including Franz Schubert, who not only accompanies his

coffin, but also, 18 months later, will be buried beside him. Despite the struggles and hardships that defined his later years, Beethoven's legacy as one of history's greatest composers has been solidified in the centuries since his death. Among his many masterpieces, the Ninth Symphony endures as a global symbol of unity and hope, with its Ode to Joy adopted as the anthem of the European Union in 1972. But most of all, Beethoven's music has never lost its power to speak to ordinary people. Music has never lost its power to speak to ordinary people. Go to a Mozart concert and at the end of it, sit back and the music has washed over you. Everything is right with the world.

Go to a Beethoven concert and your knuckles should be white, gripping your chair. What has he done? Where has he taken me? I've never heard anything so exciting in my life. That's the big difference and that, I believe, is what set Beethoven apart. Because he breaks the rules, his music is as fresh today as it was when he wrote it over 200 years ago. And that is what I believe makes him the greatest of them all. Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of the printing press. The first major impact of Gutenberg's press was it allowed ordinary people to read things

in their own language. And so ordinary people, for the first time, were able to skip past the authority of priests and, as it were, commune directly with God in their own language. That's next time.