Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 – 1827 German composer, pianist
German composer who bridged the Classical and Romantic eras and kept composing after going deaf, capped by the Ninth Symphony.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic
- Affiliations
- Viennese musical world
Ludwig van Beethoven moved from Bonn to Vienna as a young man and studied briefly with Haydn. He expanded the scale and emotional range of the symphony, sonata, and string quartet, pushing music toward the Romantic era. He began losing his hearing in his late twenties and was largely deaf by the time he wrote his Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824, which set Schiller's Ode to Joy for chorus and orchestra. He composed some of his most ambitious work when he could no longer hear it played.
Connections
- mentor of Joseph Haydn — Studied with Haydn after arriving in Vienna.
- mentor of Joseph Haydn — Taught the young Beethoven after he came to Vienna in the 1790s.
In the timeline
- 1824 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premieres composer