It's all about the classical music composers and their works from the last 400 years and much more about music. Hier erfahren Sie alles über die klassischen Komponisten und ihre Meisterwerke der letzten vierhundert Jahre und vieles mehr über Klassische Musik.
He reinvented the symphony, reshaped string quartets, and redefined piano sonatas - but there's much more to learn about Ludwig van Beethoven, the man who changed music forever.
1. Beethoven’s birth
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in December 1770… but no one is sure of the exact date! He was baptised on 17 December, so he was probably born the day before. His birthplace (pictured) is now the Beethoven-Haus museum.
2. Beethoven's father creates a child prodigy
Never mind the exact date, the year of Beethoven’s birth is sometimes questioned, and for years the composer thought he was born in 1772, two years too late. This may have been a deliberate deception on the part of his father (pictured) to make the musical prodigy seem younger – and therefore, more advanced for his age – than he actually was.
3. Violin music
As a young boy, Beethoven played the violin, often enjoying improvisation rather than reading the notes from a score. His father once asked: “What silly trash are you scratching together now? You know I can’t bear that – scratch by note, otherwise your scratching won’t amount to much.” How wrong he was…
4. Beethoven's first composition?
There’s some speculation about when the young composer started setting his ideas on paper, but the only piece to date from as early as 1782 is a set of nine variations for piano. Beethoven set himself apart as a musical maverick even at the age of 12 – the music is in C minor, which is unusual for music of the time, and it’s fiendishly difficult to play!
5. Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart
After the death of Mozart in 1791, musicians in his hometown of Vienna were in need of a new genius. The Viennese Count Waldstein (pictured) told the young Beethoven if he worked hard enough he would receive ‘Mozart’s spirit through Haydn’s hands’. No pressure then.
6. Beethoven in Vienna
Finding a wig maker? Noting the address of a dance teacher? Oh, and finding a piano, of course. Beethoven kept a diary of his day-to-day activities when he moved to Vienna in 1792, giving us insights into his personality.
7. Beethoven and Bach
By 1793, aged just 22, 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.
8. Beethoven goes deaf
Composing anything at all is a challenge, even for a musical genius. So when you consider Beethoven started to go deaf around 1796, aged just 25, it’s 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.
9. Symphony No. 1 – a musical joke?
Beethoven was 30 when his first symphony was first performed in the Burgtheater in Vienna (pictured), and it went where no symphony had ever gone before. Symphonies were seen to be pretty light-hearted works, but Beethoven took this one step further with the introduction, which sounds so musically off-beam it’s often considered to be a joke!
10. Deafness and despair: The Heiligenstadt Testament
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’s known as the ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’, and was published in 1828.
Big pieces, big orchestras, big sounds, big everything. These are the most epic pieces of classical music ever written.
So we were looking for pieces more epic than this:
And we think we've found some. Here we go...
Sibelius – Symphony No. 5
Go straight to the finale and bask in the epic majesty of Finland’s finest ever approximation of the call of a swan - obviously using the French horn.
Verdi – Aida
Verdi’s Aida is the grandest of grand operas, calling for gargantuan sets, huge orchestra forces and a chorus big enough to scale a pyramid.
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9
No biggie, just a symphony that attempts to incorporate ALL THAT IS GOOD AND RIGHT IN MANKIND’S STRUGGLE AGAINST DARKNESS.
Stravinsky – The Rite Of Spring
It reportedly caused a riot on its premiere, and it totally sounds like one too.
Saint-Saëns – Symphony No. 3
For sheer noise and impression, Saint-Saëns so-called ‘Organ’ symphony does the business like no other.
John Williams – Superman
Because nothing says ‘epic’ like a fictional superhero with his pants on outside his tights and a heroic theme played on French horn. Simple, effective, huge.
Haydn – The Creation
A piece in which the early classical legend attempts to recreate the dawn of mankind with only an orchestra and a chorus at his disposal. And he succeeds.
Brian – Symphony No. 1 (‘Gothic’)
Got a spare few hours? And a penchant for full orchestra, chorus and brass band sharing the stage? You’ll be in need of Havergal Brian’s gargantuan ‘Gothic’ symphony.
Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No. 3
It’s a popular work, but that doesn’t diminish the sheer scale of Rachmaninov’s vision for this work.
Tallis – Spem in Alium
There’s a bit late on in this choral masterpiece when 40 voices miraculously join together in breathtaking unison after swirling around each other – it’s the very definition of epic.
Spem in alium at RNCM
40 cellos playing Thomas Tallis' Renaissance masterpiece
