Beethoven, Ludwig van (b. Bonn, bap. 16 Dec 1770; d. Vienna, 26 March 1827). German composer. He studied first with his father, Johann, a singer and instrumentalist in the service of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn, but mainly with C. G. Neefe, court organist. At 11, he was able to deputize for Neefe; at 12 he had some music published. In 1787 he went to Vienna, but quickly returned on hearing that his mother was dying. Five years later he went back to Vienna, where he settled. He pursued his studies, first with Haydn, but there was some clash of temperaments and Beethoven studied too with Schenk, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Until 1794, he was supported by the Elector at Bonn, but he found patrons among the music-loving Viennese aristocracy and soon enjoyed success as a piano virtuoso, playing at private houses or palaces rather than in public. His public debut was in 1795; about the same time his first important publications appeared, three piano trios op.1 and three piano sonatas op.2. As a pianist, it was reported, he had fire, brilliance and fantasy as well as depth of feeling. It is naturally in the piano sonatas, writing for his own instrument, that he is at his most original in this period; the Pathetique belongs to1799, the Moonlight ("Sonata quasi una fantasia") to1801, and these represent only the most obvious innovations in style and emotional content. These years also saw the composition of his first three piano concertos, his first two symphonies and a set of six string quartets op.18. 1802, however, was a year of crisis for Beethoven, with his realization that the impaired hearing he had noticed for some time was incurable and sure to worsen. But he came through with his determination strengthened and entered a new creative phase, generally called his "middle period". It is characterized by a heroic tone, evident in the "Eroica" Symphony, in Symphony no.5, and in his opera Fidelio. With his powerful and expansive middle-period works, which include the Pastoral Symphony, Symphonies nos.7 and 8, Piano Concertos nos.4 (a lyrical work) and 5 (the noble and brilliant "Emperor") and the Violin Concerto, as well as more chamber works and piano sonatas, Beethoven was firmly established as the greatest composer of his time. The years after 1812 were relatively unproductive. He seems to have been seriously depressed, by his deafness and the resulting isolation, by the failure of his marital hopes and (from 1815) by anxieties over the custodianship of the son of his late brother, which involved him in legal actions. But he came out of these trials to write his profoundest music, which surely reflects something of what he had been through. There are seven piano sonatas in this, his "late period", including the turbulent "Hammerklavier" op.106, and op.110; there is a great Mass and a Choral Symphony, no.9 in D minor, where the extended variation-finale is a setting for soloists and chorus of Schill
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