Focus on the Music Makers: Ludwig van Beethoven

The Symphony’s November 19, 2017 concert Old and New will feature the works of three composers, two staples in music history and one new composition: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and an original piece from Charles Fernandez.

Who Was Ludwig van Beethoven?
Ludwig van Beethoven started his musical career at an early age, and later became known as the most famous and influential composers in the world of classical music. He was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music.

At the same time as he was composing his great and immortal works, Beethoven was struggling to come to terms with a fact that he tried desperately to conceal. He was going deaf. By the turn of the century, Beethoven struggled even to make out the words spoken to him in conversation.

Almost miraculously, despite his rapidly progressing deafness, Beethoven continued to compose his greatest music — perhaps the greatest music ever composed, at a furious pace.

Amazingly, during his “middle” or “heroic” period, he composed an opera, six symphonies, four solo concerti, five string quartets, six string sonatas, seven piano sonatas, five sets of piano variations, four overtures, four trios, two sextets and 72 songs.