Probably the first musician to make a career solely from composing, Beethoven was regarded as a genius even in his lifetime. Like Mozart, he followed his father as a court musician; the Beethovens served the archbishop-elector of Bonn in western Germany. But Ludwig’s father — unlike Wolfgang’s — was a failure and an alcoholic who beat the boy to make him practice. A trip to Vienna to make contacts (he hoped to study with Mozart) was cut short by the death of his mother. Still in his teens, Beethoven had to take charge of his family because of his father’s drinking.

Nonetheless, Bonn was an “enlightened” court, ruled by the brother of Emperor Joseph II of Austria. The talented young musician could mix with aristocrats and audit classes at the liberal University. The idealism that is so evident in Beethoven’s later works — such as his Ninth Symphony, ending with a choral hymn to universal brotherhood — can be traced to this early environment.

Compared to Mozart, Beethoven was a slow developer, but by the age of twenty-two he had made enough of an impression to receive a sort of fellowship to return to Vienna, this time to study with Haydn. He was soon acclaimed as a powerful virtuoso pianist, playing his own compositions and improvising brilliantly at the palaces of the music-loving aristocracy of that city. He remained in Vienna until his death.

After the age of thirty, he became progressively deaf —a devastating fate for a musician, which kept him from making a living in the traditional manner, by performing. The crisis that this caused in Beethoven’s life is reflected by a strange, moving document (called the “Heiligenstadt Testament,” after the town where it was written, in 1802) that is half a proclamation of artistic ideals, half suicide note. But Beethoven overcame his depression and in 1803 wrote the first of his truly powerful and individual symphonies, the Third (Eroica).

Beethoven all but demanded support from the nobility in Vienna, who were awed by his extraordinarily forceful and original music as well as by his uncompromising character. An alarmingly brusque and strong-willed person, he suffered deeply and seemed to live for his art alone. His domestic life was chaotic; one anecdote has him pouring water over himself to cool off in summer and being asked by his landlord to leave. (He moved an average of once a year.) By the end of his life he was well known in Vienna as an eccentric, teased by street boys.

Like many leftists — for the French Revolution invented the Left as we know it — Beethoven grew more conservative in later years. After life in Vienna was disrupted by French occupations, he went into a slump and kept himself going by writing music for counterrevolutionary celebrations. Ironically, he was never so famous or so well-off. He came out of the slump to write some of his greatest music, but it was mostly beyond the comprehension of his contemporaries.

Beethoven had an immense need to receive and to give affection, yet he never married, despite various love affairs. After he died, passionate letters to a woman identified only as his “Immortal Beloved” were found; we now know she was the wife of a Frankfurt merchant. In his later years Beethoven adopted his own orphan nephew, but this was a catastrophe. His attitude was so overprotective and his love so smothering that the boy could not stand it and attempted suicide.

Beethoven had always lived with ill health, and the shock of this new family crisis hastened his death. Twenty thousand attended his funeral; his eulogy was written by Vienna’s leading poet.

Taste in many matters has changed many times since Beethoven’s lifetime, but his music has always reigned supreme with audiences and critics. The originality and expressive power of his work seem never to fade.

Chief Works: Nine symphonies, the most famous being the Third (Eroica), Fifth, Sixth (Pastoral), Seventh, and Ninth (Choral) ◼ The opera Fidelio (originally called Leonore), for which he wrote four different overtures; overtures to the plays Egmont, by Goethe, and Coriolan ◼ Violin Concerto and five piano concertos, including the “Emperor” (No. 5) ◼ Sixteen string quartets ◼ Thirty-two piano sonatas, including the Pathétique, Waldstein, Appassionata, and the late-period Hammerklavier Sonata ◼ Mass in D (Missa solemnis)

Encore: After Symphony No. 5 and the Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109, listen to the “Moonlight” Sonata; Sonata in A-flat, Op. 110; Symphonies No. 6 and 9.

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