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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827)

1. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in December 1770, but no one is sure of the exact date! He was baptized on December 17th, so he was most likely born the day before.

2. When he was 12, he was already composing pieces with funny names like “Lied an einen Säugling” (Song for an Infant) and, later, “Elegie auf den Tod eines Pudels” (Elegy on the Death of a Poodle). The identity of the lucky poodle remains unknown.

3. On his first visit to Vienna, 17-year-old Beethoven was scheduled to perform for Mozart. The latter was generally unimpressed with other musicians, having been so far ahead of his peers in talent and accomplishments. No one really knows what happened during that fateful meeting, but rumor has it Mozart walked out of the room saying, “Keep your eyes on him – someday he’ll give the world something to talk about.”

4. By 1793, just 22 years of age, Beethoven often played the piano in the salons of the Viennese nobility. He often performed the preludes and fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and quickly established himself as a piano virtuoso.

5. Composing anything is a challenge, even for a musical genius. So when you consider Beethoven started to go deaf around 1796, aged just 25, it is a wonder he managed to write any music at all. He communicated using conversation books, asking his friends to write down what they wanted to say so he could respond.

6. After Beethoven had been composing for some years, the piano began to come into its own. Whereas his predecessors had composed for harpsichord, Beethoven decided he would focus his efforts on the instrument for which no one had yet written comprehensive pieces.

7. Despite his increasing deafness, by 1802 Beethoven was almost at breaking point. On a retreat to Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, he wrote: “I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.” It is known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament” and was published after his death.

8. One of Beethoven’s great piano works, but he never knew the piece as the Moonlight Sonata. He simply called it Piano Sonata No. 14, and it did not receive its poetic nickname until 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death. German poet Ludwig Rellstab said the first movement sounded like moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne, and the name stuck.

9. Symphony No. 9 with its choral finale, the Missa Solemnis, late string quartets, and some of his greatest piano music including sonatas and the Diabelli variations – Beethoven’s late period is full of musical genius. Much of the music is characterized by its intellectual intensity, but it sounds just as wonderful to beginners and Beethoven-aficionados alike.

10. Beethoven died in 1827. His autopsy revealed a shrunken liver due to cirrhosis.

Just like Beethoven’s birth, his last words are also a bit of a mystery. It is often thought his last words were, in Latin, “applaud friends, the comedy is ended” but his parting gift to the world was far less cerebral. After a publisher bought Beethoven twelve bottles of wine as a gift, the dying composer’s final words were: “Pity, pity, too late!”