BEETHOVEN (SOLITAR)

Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical music repertoire, and span the transition from the classical period to the romantic era in classical music. His career has conventionally been divided into early, middle, and late periods. The “early” period, during which he forged his craft, is typically considered to have lasted until 1802. From 1802 to around 1812, his “middle” period showed an individual development from the “classical” styles of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is sometimes characterized as “heroic”. During this time, he began to suffer increasingly from deafness. In his “late” period from 1812 to his death in 1827, he extended his innovations in musical form and expression.

Beethoven dated his hearing loss from a fit he suffered in 1798 induced by a quarrel with a singer.] During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of tinnitus. As early as 1801, he wrote to friends, describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings.

In the years from 1810, Beethoven composed many of his most admired works. He composed his Missa Solemnis in the years 1819–1823, and his final, Ninth, Symphony, one of the first examples of a choral symphony, from 1822–1824. Written in his last years, his late string quartets of 1825–1826 are amongst his final achievements. After some months of bedridden illness, he died in 1827. Beethoven’s works remain mainstays of the classical music repertoire.