Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven carried European music from the classical style into romanticism, and wrote much of his greatest work after he could no longer hear it. Baptised in Bonn in December 1770, he was trained brutally by his father, a court singer and alcoholic who advertised him as a child prodigy and understated his age. He was supporting the family as a court organist by his early teens. He moved to Vienna in 1792 and studied with Haydn, making his name first as a pianist of formidable improvisational power. He began losing his hearing around 1796. In the Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802, a letter to his brothers that he never sent, he described contemplating suicide and resolving to continue for the sake of his art. What followed was the heroic period. The Third Symphony of 1804, twice the length of a typical Haydn symphony, was dedicated to Napoleon until he declared himself emperor, at which point Beethoven scratched out the dedication so hard he tore the paper. The Fifth and Sixth followed in 1808, the Violin Concerto in 1806, the opera Fidelio in successive revisions from 1805. He was among the first composers to work without a permanent patron, living on publishing, subscription concerts and an annuity from three noblemen, which made him answerable to a public rather than a court. His personal life was disordered: an unsent love letter to an unidentified Immortal Beloved, and a long and damaging custody battle over his nephew Karl. By the Ninth Symphony's premiere in 1824 he was completely deaf and had to be turned around to see the applause. The late string quartets, written in his final years, were considered incomprehensible for decades. He died in 1827.

• Lived: 1770 CE – 1827 CE
• Nationality: German
• Roles: composer