MASTERPIECE OF LUDWIG VAN

BEETHOVEN

(1770-1827)

In popular imagination, Beethoven was the first Romantic composer, living his life on a grand and passionate scale, railing against his deafness, beseeching God for comfort, and scowling at society's conventions. From a practical standpoint, he was the first important composer to make his living outside of the traditional venues of court and church. Musically, Beethoven was a revolutionary, whose innovations of scale and form are still being assimilated by composers, performers and audiences to this day.

This most singular of musicians actually began his career in a traditional fashion. His father was a (not very good) tenor employed by the Elector of Bonn; he both recognized his son's talents and attempted to exploit them by arranging concerts in the family apartments. After young Beethoven's studies, he assumed a position as a violist in the Elector's court and theater orchestras. His talents, both as a keyboard virtuoso and as a composer, attracted much notice from members of the court, and he came to be on easy terms with several members of the aristocracy. The most important of these was the Count Ferdinand Waldstein, who arranged a stipend for the young composer to study with Haydn in Vienna, and who wrote at Beethoven's departure, "With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands."

Beethoven left Bonn in 1792, and never returned. Although his studies with Haydn did not go well, Beethoven quickly cultivated the friendship of the aristocracy in Vienna, as he had in Bonn. He performed in their salons, and composed music for their entertainment, most often dedicating each new work to a wealthy friend. Indeed, Beethoven depended on the patronage of his aristocratic admirers to survive. He would stay at their homes, or accompany them to their country estates; they would would purchase copies of his newest pieces, attend concerts given to premiere his works, and recommend him as a teacher. On two occasions, in 1800, and then from 1814 onward, his patrons provided him with a formal stipend so that "the necessities of life would not block his genius."

Meanwhile, Beethoven's reputation grew steadily. He was already acknowledged to be the greatest of pianists. No one even approached the drama, the sentiment, or the nobility of musical expression in his playing. In April, 1800 he had his first major success as a composer before a public audience in Vienna, when his First Symphony, Piano Concerto in C (published as No. 1) and Septet were performed. The next year, Beethoven received his first commission for a stage work - the ballet Creatures of Prometheus . These were instantly popular, and new commissions came very quickly; for a time Beethoven was often working on four compositions at once at once.

But these were also the years in which Beethoven realized he was going deaf. By October 1802, Beethoven had reached such a state of despair that he contemplated suicide. In a letter "intended to be read by my brothers after my death" he concludes: ...Oh Providence - grant me at last but one day of pure joy - it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart - Oh when - Oh when, Oh Divine One - shall I feel it again in the temple of nature and mankind - Never? - No - Oh that would be too hard."

Beethoven survived the depression by throwing himself into work. The compositions of the next decade, sometimes referred to as the "Heroic Years," included the Symphony No. 3 ( Eroica ), Symphony No. 5 (with its famous motto of "fate knocking at the door)," and Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral), as well as the Waldstein and Appassionata piano sonatas; each work seems to break the boundaries of classical form and rhetoric. Most of these works were warmly received. Unfortunately, Beethoven's grandest effort of the decade, his opera Leonore was judged a failure at its premiere. Only in 1814, revised several times over and renamed Fidelio was it a success.

Beethoven's passions, always outsized, were the equal to and inseparable from his heroic artistic stance. Throughout his life he would develop grand amorous attachments for women who were generally unattainable or uninterested in an intimate relationship. This culminated in his infatuation with the "Immortal Beloved." A single letter to this mystery woman, probably written in 1812, survives; it is so filled with barely controlled passion that the words make almost no sense. Although the affair make have been consummated, it did not last.

Vienna at this time was under the control of the French, and most of Beethoven's noble supporters had fled the city. Even after their return in 1814, Beethoven's situation had changed. A new generation was beginning to determine taste in the city, and Beethoven's works, although much admired, were no longer as popular in 1820 as they had been in 1803. Partly this was because, as Beethoven's hearing worsened and eventually left him completely, his compositions became increasingly abstract and personal. Beethoven was also laboring longer over each score, and they came less frequently. In 1808 he could produce a concert that included the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, selected movements from a Mass, the concert aria "Ah, Perfido, " and the Choral Fantasy . A similar venture in 1824, consisted of the Overture, Consecration of the House , selections from the Missa Solemnis , and the Ninth Symphony, a long concert by today's standards, but not the four hour plus marathon of 1808.

After these works, Beethoven turned to composing string quartets. He had not written for the medium in twelve years, but in the last years of his life he concentrated almost exclusively on them. Together with his late piano sonatas, these works show the master again exploring new musical territory, experimenting with form and harmonic procedure. To this day, composers struggle to follow him in his final vision.

Symphony no.5 in C moll 1. Allegro con brio  7:12

Symphony no.5 in C moll 2. Andante con motto  10:52

Symphony no.5 in C moll 3. Allegro  5:22

Symphony no.5 in C moll 4. Allegro (attacca)  9:02

Marche Turque (orchestral)   3:12

Bogatelle in A minor "Für Elise"  2:33

Piano sonata opus27 no2  5:55