Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Born in Bonn into a family of court musicians, Beethoven made his name very young as a pianist and improviser. In 1792 he moved to Vienna, took lessons from Haydn and quickly became the most admired pianist in aristocratic salons.

Towards the end of the 1790s he began to lose his hearing. In 1802 he wrote the “Heiligenstadt Testament”, a harrowing letter to his brothers confessing his despair and his resolve to live for his art. The heroic works followed: the “Eroica” Symphony, the “Waldstein” and “Appassionata” sonatas, the opera Fidelio.

Almost totally deaf at the end of his life, he composed his most visionary works: the late piano sonatas, the Diabelli Variations, the Missa solemnis, the Ninth Symphony with its “Ode to Joy”, and the late string quartets.

His 32 piano sonatas are often called the pianist’s “New Testament” (Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier being the Old). They use the whole keyboard, extreme contrasts and the pedal. The more modest pieces — Für Elise, the easy sonatas Op. 49, the bagatelles — are an ideal way into his world.