The person, who lies here was possessed. Striving for the one goal, carrying only about one thing, suffering for one and making sacrifices, the man wandered through life... If there are some people amidst us, who can get the sense of ultimate devotion in the restless times, let’s meet at his grave. Hasn’t it always been the task of poets, hero’s, bards, and prophets to uplift the poor and the lost, so that they could remember their origins as well as destiny?

Extract form the speech of Grillparzer to celebrate the unveiling the monument of Beethoven in 1827.

There are few, in any, other composers whose pieces require such a great technical skills being so transparent and logical at the same time.
There are few artists telling so many things about the human, about his perplexities, struggles, thoughts, suffering and hopes
Beethoven contemporaries heard in his music as unusual, poetic, dramatic and perfect and even – as in the 9th Symphony – the reflection of the universe. .
There are few composers whose art is so full of musical, human and metaphysical contents. And Beethoven is the only one.

Second Mozart

Ludwig van Beethoven was born on 16 or 17 December 1770 in Bonn. The Beethoven family came from Flanders. They were ordinary townspeople – carpenters, sailors, traders, bakers. The first musician in the family was grandfather and namesake of the great composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. His son Johann, and the father of Ludwig also became one. The situation at little Ludwig’s home wasn’t good: permanent quarrels of his parents, drunkenness of his father and bad financial conditions weren’t any good memories for Ludwig. When his home situation became worse and worse and as soon as his father noticed Ludwig’s musical abilities he decided to educate him musically.

At first he taught Ludwig by himself. When little Beethoven was only 7, on 26 March 1778 he performed at his own concert in Koln. Besides playing the clavichord, he learnt to play the violin, the organ and the viola. In 1779 he started music lessons with Christian Gottlob Neefe, the manager of the opera performances in the theatre in Bonn and the court organist. Neefe became the friend for young Beethoven and he influenced him a lot, teaching him not only how to play the organ, the keyboard instruments and how to compose, but also how to love art. He opened the realm of the music by Bach and Haendel for him. He wrote about Beethoven in the “Magazin der Musik”: “... that young genius deserves the help which could enable him to travel. If he still follows that path, he will surely become the second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” Neefe also supported Beethoven’s composing glow and he helped him to publish his first composition, 9 variations on the Dressler march theme (1782).

Thanks to his teacher Beethoven was employed in 1784 as a musician at the court in Bonn. Being a professional musician made his education difficult. So he took private lessons of general education. He was a piano teacher and that’s how he met many reach families in his city. He taught the piano at famous Breuning’s house. There he got to know the family atmosphere, which he didn’t have at his own home. He made friends with the Breunings, especially with Eleonora Breuning and her husband Franz G. Wegeler as well as with count Waldstein (and some time later he composed “Waldstein” Piano sonata). In 1787 Beethoven traveled to Vienna for the first time, where he met Mozart. Unfortunatelly soon after he arrived he had to come back to Bonn due to his mother’s death. As his father was a heavy drinker the young composer took over the responsibility to support the family. He works as a court musician in Bonn, but whenever he can he composes. He wrote the sketches to Ode to Joy by Schiller there. In Bonn Beethoven was famous as a distinguished pianist, having a dazzling technique and great improvising skills. At that time he composed a lot – cantatas, songs and piano music – obviously for himself. But not many of that pieces survived until today.

He is a devil

In 1792 Beethoven left for Vienna to study with Haydn, whom he had met at the court in Bonn two years before. He would never come back to his family city. In Vienna Haydn meticulously improved and changed Beethoven’s pieces. Soon after that the composer understood that Haydn and his art were the thing of the past and he stopped his studying with Haydn. Subsequent studies he took with Antonio Salieri. In 1795 he began his public concerts in Vienna. The same year he signed a contract with Artaria publishing house and he published his 3 Trios op. 1.

Thanks to recommendation letters form his friends from Bonn Beethoven quickly got entered the aristocratic world of Vienna. He is invited to the houses of duke Lichnowsky (whom he dedicated his Pathetique Sonata), count Apponzi, duke Nicolas Esterhazy, baron Zmeskall von Domanowecz, archduke Rudolf, the brother of emperor Franz, count Brinsvik and many others. The nice relationship with the Brunsviks became a long lasting friendship, especially with Franz, Teresa and Josephine Brunsvik. He also became a friend of countess Giulietta Guicciardi, whom he dedicated Sonata C-sharp minor “Moonlight”. The composer got to know many people in the bourgeoise. He made friends with Carl Amenda, theologian and the amateur violinist.

Two years after his arrival in Vienna he was known as one of the greatest pianists. Besides giving official concerts, Beethoven competed in the craftsmanship of improvising with many pianists. After one of the competition the beaten distinguished pianist Jelinek was to say: “He is not a human, he is a devil!”

I can’t leave that world

In 1800 first Beethoven’s orchestral piece was preformed – his Symphony C Major No. 1. His problem with his hearing, which the composer noticed first in the mid 90’s was getting worse. He was devastated and in 1802 he wrote the letter to his bothers, called Heiligenstad testament: “...but how I felt humiliated, if somebody standing right behind me could hear distant flute sounds and I couldn’t hear anything (...). Such things make me feel devastated and I nearly wanted to end my life– the only things which stopped me was my art. Truly it seemed to be impossible to leave that world before composing all the pieces I feel the need to compose...”. Despite the great despair he didn’t
give up. In 1803 his Symphony D Major No. 2 was performed. At that time he also created many piano and violin sonatas as well as the cycles of piano variations. In 1803 he was given the Erard piano which had bigger scale – to c4. It had a great influence on the sound scale enlargement in his later piano compositions.

Beethoven’s disability is got worse day by day. It’s difficult for him to communicate with people, harder to lead the orchestra from behind the director stand. He was still considered to be a great pianist, but he felt that he would have to cut down his performing. He started to become more and more reserved, getting away from people and everyday life. He threw himself into work instead. The idea of heroism crystallized in his music in that time; the more painful and difficult his life was, the more visible the idea of fight in his music became. Those ideas were the source of his Symphony No. 3 Eroica created in 1804 and of the opera Fidelio, the Symphony No. 5, piano sonatas “Waldstein” and “Appasionata” and the music of Egmont by Goethe.

In 1807 his Mass C Major which he composed for duke Esterházy was performed. One year earlier he wrote Symphony No. 4, dedicated to count Franz von Oppersdorff. In 1804-1810 his creative strengths blossomed. He also wrote Piano concertos G Major and E-flat Major, Violin Concerto D Major, string quartets op. 59, dedicated to count Razumowski, Quartet F Minor op. 95, Coriolan overture and symphonies from No. 3 to No. 6.

There is no happiness for you

At that time Beethoven made new friendships. He got to know women who played a crucial role in his life: Teresa Malfatti, Maria Erödy, a singer Amalia Sebald and Bettina Bretano, who helped him to meet Goethe. In about 1812 he writes the letter “to immortal belovedę. It was probably addressed to Teresa, Josephine Brunsvik, Giulietta Guicciardi or Dorotea Ertmann. The acquaintances with women didn’t bring him happiness. He wrote to his friend, baron Gleichenstein: „Friendship and all the feeling bring me only the suffering... There is no happiness for you, poor Beethoven, you have to hide everything within your soul, you can only find a friendship in the realm of the ideal.”

Beethoven became more and more aware of his mission. He didn’t look at his art as an object of entertainment, like the artists of the 18th century did. He expressed the deepest experience, emotions through his art. Beethoven discoved completely new horizons in his music. After 1810 the composer still performed but less and less. The height of his great performances was academy in 1814, where Vienna congress participants were present – the empresses of Austria and Russia, Prussian king and numerous dukes. In 1815 Beethoven became the honorary citizen of Vienna.

In 1818 the composer was given an English piano by Broadwood, having the scale from C1 t0 c4, and some time later he was given the piano by C. Graf, having increased volume and scale to f4. Those instruments inspired his last great piano pieces.
In his private life of that period, the same as earlier, Beethoven couldn’t find any love and family warmth. During his 30 years life in Vienna he changed the flat 35 times. His relationship with his siblings weren’t good. When in 1815 his brother Carl dyed, Beethoven decided to adopt his son, Carl and he fought in court for five years for his custody with his mother.
Carl turned out to be the next Beethoven’s disappointment - the composer craved to educate his nephew to be a musician. He invested big sum of money in his education, e.g. in his lessons with Carl Czerny. After a few years the fact, that the nephew didn’t have any musical talent became clear.

Beethoven had big problems with the upbringing of his nephew and they were accompanied by his bad financial situation and still worse health. Numerous medical consultations didn’t help. Since 1815 Beethoven had to communicate with people using so called “conversation notebooks”, of which 137 have remained till today. “In suffering the man has to try his strengths, he has to withstand everything, not looking at his nothingness and strive for subsequent perfection” – these are words written in one of his letters from 1816 and also his ideological programme of his late years, which became the period of a great spurt of creation of the composer.

He created then his last piano sonatas, Variations C Major of the Diabelli waltz theme, his last string quartets, Missa Solemnis, and finally, in 1824, the height of his output – monumental Symphony No. 9, in which the human voice is used – soloists and choir. He included Ode to Joy by Schiller in this symphony.
Just at the end of his life, when Beethoven’s titanic fight with his loneliness and his illness reached the pick, he believed in people so strong, in fraternity. Symphony No. 9 was acclaimed by the audience. Beethoven planed his next pieces, but his work was hampered by his ill health and the troubles with his nephew, who tried to commit suicide in 1826. The same year during winter, when Beethoven was coming back from his brother Johann with Carl, he got a cold and then he went down with pneumonia. In January 1827 he wrote his last will. He died on 26 March 1827 during the storm. The output he left could be define using the words by Richard Wagner, which were used in his analysis of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: “Violence, objection, noble ups of the spirit, longings, hopes, getting closer to the dreamed aim and again loosing that aim, next trials, next fights...”