Beethoven

21 Dec, 2017 780 Music

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great composers, who was born into a family of musicians in Bonn. His grandfather was an eminent musician and also called Ludwig van Beethoven. His father, who was not as talented as Beethoven’s grandfather, drank heavily and died when Beethoven was still young. It was his move to Vienna that allowed him to flourish, with the support at first of aristocratic patrons, when that city was the hub of European music. He is credited with developing the symphony further than any who preceded him, with elevating instrumental above choral music and with transforming music to the highest form of art. He composed his celebrated works while, from his late twenties onwards, becoming increasingly deaf. (Before the live broadcast, BBC Radio 3’s Breakfast programme played selections from Beethoven, with Essential Classics playing more, immediately after, on the same network.)

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Laura Tunbridge No other episodes
    Professor of Music and Henfrey Fellow, St Catherine's College, University of Oxford
  • John Deathridge 3 episodes
    Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London
  • Erica Buurman No other episodes
    Senior Lecturer in Music, Canterbury Christchurch University

Reading list

  • Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music
    Theodor W. Adorno (Polity Press, 2002) Google Books →
  • Beethoven and Freedom
    Daniel K.L. Chua (Oxford University Press, 2017)
  • Beethoven and his World: A Biographical Dictionary
    Peter Clive (Oxford University Press, 2001) Google Books →
  • The Changing Image of Beethoven
    Alessandra Comini (Rizzoli, 1987) Google Books →
  • Beethoven
    Barry Cooper (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books →
  • Beethoven: The Last Decade 1817-1827
    Martin Cooper (Oxford University Press, 1977) Google Books →
  • Thayer's Life of Beethoven
    Elliot Forbes (ed.) (Princeton University Press, first published 1964; 1991) Google Books →
  • Beethoven
    William Kinderman (Oxford University Press, 2009) Google Books →
  • Beethoven: The Music and the Life
    Lewis Lockwood (W. W. Norton, 2005) Google Books →
  • Beethoven's Symphonies: An Artistic Vision
    Lewis Lockwood (W. W. Norton, 2015) Google Books →
  • Political Beethoven
    Nicholas Mathew (Cambridge University Press, 2013) Google Books →
  • Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
    Alexander Rehding (Oxford University Press, 2017) Google Books →
  • Beethoven
    Maynard Solomon (Schirmer Trade Books, 2001) Google Books →
  • Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
    Jan Swafford (Faber & Faber, 2014) Google Books →
  • The Life of Beethoven
    David Wyn Jones (Cambridge University Press, 1998) Google Books →

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Programme ID: b09jbsjc

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jbsjc

Auto-category: 780.92 (Music—biography of musicians)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the greatest composers is often considered the greatest, a defining figure in western classical music.