The final movement in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is the most famous, as it served as the musical setting for FriedrichSchiller's poem "Ode to Joy." Beethoven was already deaf when he wrote it. The number nine also seems to have marked posterity: Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner never went beyond the ninth symphony either.ĩ. Beethoven's symphonies were so comprehensive and tremendous sounding that subsequent composers were paralyzed by the challenge of outdoing them. The interval signal used for decades on Deutsche Welle's radio programs was borrowed from an aria in "Fidelio."Įvery respectable large orchestra has all nine symphonies in its standard repertoire. The plot is based on an actual event of the French Revolution: A heroic woman, dressed as a man, freed her husband from the prison of the Jacobins. Beethoven successfully reworked it, producing a third and fourth version of the score. Peter Freiherr von Braun commissioned Beethoven's "Fidelio." At its opening performance in 1805, the opera was panned by critics. His only opera almost landed in the trash. He also earned money with commissioned works for political figures of his time.Ħ. Even during his lifetime, he was able to live on his compositions. He achieved his goal: Beethoven is now one of the most frequently performed composers in the world. He would revise and correct his scores again and again, until late at night. He did not compose for his contemporaries, but for posterity. The score of the revolutionary Ninth Symphonyīeethoven was a perfectionist. He became known for his dramaturgical compositions and, instead of long motifs, he preferred short ones which were easier to recognize, as the opening of his famous Fifth Symphony illustrates.īeethoven composed some 240 works, including symphonies, piano concertos, string quartets, and one opera. The composer with the wild mop of hair was considered a musical revolutionary and a pioneer of Romanticism. The era of Viennese Classicism came to an end with Beethoven. When Beethoven took custody of his nephew Karl after the death of his brother, he was so strict with him that the young man tried to commit suicide to escape his uncle's grip. He wrote in the letter now known as the "Heiligenstadt Testament" that his irritability was due to his increasing deafness. The cheerful young composer turned into a grouchy and ill-tempered man. His chamber pot would remain unemptied under his piano and leftovers would be found scattered among his compositions. His friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler wrote: "In Vienna, Beethoven was always involved in love affairs." Among his private papers, Beethoven left behind love letters to an unknown lady, who has become known as the "Immortal Beloved." No one knows exactly who that was, but recent biographies claim it could be Antonie Brentano, who married into the famous Brentano family. "Für Elise": Beethoven worshipped Elisabeth Röckel
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