Top 10 interesting facts about Ludwig van Beethoven

Everyone knows that Ludwig van Beethoven was an outstanding composer who was not prevented even by deafness. Alas, other than that, many people do not know anything about him. We bring to your attention a brief summary of the ten most interesting facts about Beethoven: stories from the life and biography of the composer that influenced his work.

10 Ludwig’s father developed his son’s talent by any means

As a child, Ludwig had a difficult life. The Beethoven house was a bleak place for parents and children. His father Johann (at that time a court singer) began the boy’s musical education from the cradle, and the training was more like torture: the boy had to stand on a footrest to reach the keys, and his father stood next to him, beating him for every mistake.

Johann, coming home late at night, very drunk, used to wake up Ludwig and force him to practice. Such late-night sessions were often conducted by one Tobias Pfeiffer, a pianist and family friend who reportedly suffered from insomnia.

Beethoven also learned to play the organ, violin and viola.. Despite the stress and suffering during his classes, he showed an extraordinary talent for music early on.

9. Published his first composition at the age of 12

This is a merit not only of Beethoven, but also of his father, who was a kind of producer for his son. As his grandfather’s financial legacy dwindled, Johann began promoting Ludwig as a child prodigy in an attempt to emulate the financial successes of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s father. He even lied about the boy’s correct age, saying that he was only six years old at his first public concert on March 26, 1778.

At school, as is often the case with geniuses, he found it difficult to keep up with the class. Understanding multiplication and division was beyond his ability even when he was an adult. Given the realities and the aforementioned financial difficulties, he was withdrawn from school at the age of 10.

8. Took lessons from Haydn and Salieri

It was a great honor to be a student of Haydn, because Joseph Haydn was a music superstar all over Europe, but the young and arrogant Beethoven was not impressed, he unfairly said that “learn nothing from Haydn».

In parallel, he began taking lessons from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, who was organist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and also studied with Antonio Salieri.

7. Stopped the concert after a pair of spectators began to communicate with each other

Even now it is bad form to make noise during a performance, so in the theater and opera they are asked to turn off mobile phones. In Beethoven’s time, there was no such technique, but there were already spectators who liked to chat during the concert. It is unlikely that in his life he encountered such behavior only once, but there is only one known case of stopping the concert. Apparently, the couple was talking very loudly.

6. Received refusals in proposals of the hand and heart

Beethoven’s personal life was a disaster. He constantly fell in love with his students, often dedicating compositions to them, but he was fishing in the wrong pond. The laws of the aristocracy allowed marriage between classes, but a noble woman who married a commoner could lose her title forever. Although many were in love with Beethoven, often more of a genius than a real man, no one was loyal enough to refuse the title for love..

Among all, several of the most serious connections can be distinguished: for example, in 1801 there was Countess Giulietta Gicciardi, to whom he dedicated the Moonlight Sonata (Op. 27). Then there was Josephine Brunswick, another student who eventually turned him down, partly due to pressure from her family.

Finally, the most important of all is the Immortal Beloved. After Beethoven’s death, a letter was found among his personal belongings. It is a love letter, 10 small pages long, without date, place, or any name or indication of who the recipient might be.

The analysis of the letter has been going on for almost 200 years without any definitive conclusions. There is no doubt that the letter was written in the summer of 1812 in the spa town of Teplitz. In 1972, Maynard Solomon published a book in which – after some serious detective work – he names Antony Brentano Beloved. This work should be regarded as the most complete on the subject, and hence the conclusion is the most likely.

There are two opinions about Beethoven’s sex life. According to the first, Beethoven died a virgin simply because his strong and high moral values ​​did not allow him to have sex. Another group is convinced that he was a regular visitor to brothels, which made him deeply unhappy. The second group is based on one of Beethoven’s letters, in which he confesses that such experiences make his body satisfied, but disgust his soul.

5. Didn’t care about his appearance

Beethoven was born into a body that was the exact opposite of his music. Most women thought he was ugly, small and shabby. His face was scarred from smallpox, which he contracted as a child.

His stomach gave him constant discomfort and suffering in the form of vomiting and diarrhoea. His liver was under stress due to his (sometimes severe) alcohol abuse. On top of everything he did not strive to dress fashionably, so he looked the same. Perhaps this also played a role in his failures on the love front.

4. At the age of 25, the composer’s hearing began to deteriorate, and at 46 he became completely deaf.

One day, in 1798, Beethoven had a visitor. Walking him to the door, he sat down at the piano and continued to compose. A little later there was a knock on the door. The composer was very angry that he was disturbed, jumped up and rushed to the door.

When he took a step, he fell and immediately his ears began to buzz. It was the day that Beethoven began to deafen. There were periods when his hearing improved but never recovered. Gradually he lost his hearing, first higher notes, and then, by 1814, he was completely deaf..

There are many theories as to the cause of this disease: some researchers believe that Beethoven had Paget’s disease (incorrect bone regeneration in the skull, causing the bones to become thicker than normal).

3. Deaf, communicated with interlocutors using a notebook, answered them aloud

As the hearing loss progressed, Beethoven began to ignore social interactions. He believed that a musician was ashamed to be deaf and assumed that his reputation would suffer if the truth came out. His days as a virtuoso musician were numbered. As communication became more difficult, he created a conversation notebook where people could write a question and he would answer orally.

2. Wrote only one opera

This opera is called “Fidelio” and was written in 1804, and it was presented to the public a year later.. The opera was very fond of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, who claimed that Fidelio meant more to him than all Mozart’s operas put together.

1. More than 20 people gathered for the funeral of the musician

The funeral took place on March 29 and was attended by about 20 people.. He was first buried in the Waring Cemetery, but in 1888 his remains were transferred to the Vienna Central Friedhof, where they remain today. Known during his lifetime, Beethoven became truly great after his death.