Biography and episodes of life Ludwig van Beethoven. When born and died Ludwig van Beethoven, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Composer quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Ludwig van Beethoven:

born December 16, 1770, died March 26, 1827

Epitaph

"On the very day when your harmonies
Overcame complex world labor,
The light overpowered the light, a cloud passed through the cloud,
Thunder moved on thunder, a star entered the star.
And furiously overwhelmed by inspiration,
In the orchestras of thunderstorms and the thrill of thunder,
You climbed the cloudy steps
And touched the music of the worlds.”
From a poem by Nikolai Zabolotsky dedicated to Beethoven

Biography

His own father did not see talent in him, and Haydn considered him too gloomy a composer, but when Beethoven died, twenty thousand people followed his coffin. Last years During his lifetime, the composer was completely deaf, but this did not stop him from creating his most brilliant works at this time. Perhaps Beethoven really was not mistaken when he said that he created with God's help.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born into a musical family. From childhood, the father worked with the boy and taught him to play various musical instruments. But little Beethoven’s first performance was not particularly successful, and his father decided that he had no talent and entrusted his son to other teachers. Beethoven, contrary to his father’s disappointing forecasts, already at the age of 12 received the position of assistant organist at court. And when his mother died, he took on the responsibilities of the breadwinner and supported his younger brothers by working in the orchestra.

Beethoven's first fame was brought not by his own compositions, but by his virtuoso performance. Soon the works of Beethoven himself began to be published. The period of Beethoven's life, which he lived in Vienna, was especially successful for the composer. Despite the fact that the composer had a rather harsh disposition, high self-esteem, and refused to bow down to officials and influential people, it was impossible not to recognize Beethoven’s genius. And yet the composer always had many friends - tough and proud in public, he was very generous and friendly towards his loved ones, ready to give them his last money or help them solve problems.

But Beethoven's main passion remained music. Perhaps that is why he never married, he was so passionate about himself and his ability to create. Only illness could prevent him from composing, and therefore the fact that genius composer I started losing my hearing at such a young age. But even this did not stop him, and his music became even more perfect and monumental.

In the last years of his life, Beethoven worked with particular zeal, creating one great work after another. But illness and worries about his nephew, whom Beethoven took into custody, significantly shortened his life. Beethoven's death occurred on March 26, 1827. Beethoven's funeral was held with great honors. Beethoven's grave is located in the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Life line

December 16, 1770 Date of birth of Ludwig van Beethoven.
1778 First public speaking Beethoven in Cologne.
1780 Start of lessons with organist and composer Christian Gottlob Nefe.
1782 Admission to the position of assistant court organist, publication of the young composer’s first work - variations on a theme of Dressler’s march.
1787 Applying for the position of violist in an orchestra.
1789 Attending lectures at the university.
1792-1802 The Viennese period in Beethoven's life - studies with Haydn, Salieri, Beethoven's fame as a virtuoso performer, publication of Beethoven's works.
1796 Beginning of hearing loss.
1801 Beethoven's writing of the Moonlight Sonata.
1803 Beethoven's writing of the Kreutzer Sonata.
1814 Production of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio.
1824 Performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
March 26, 1827 Beethoven's date of death.
March 29, 1827 Beethoven's funeral.

Memorable places

1. Beethoven's house in Bonn, where he was born.
2. Beethoven's house-museum in Baden, where he lived and worked.
3. Theater an der Wien (“Theater on the Vienna River”), which hosted the premieres of Beethoven’s works such as the opera Fidelio, the Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, violin and Fourth piano concertos.
4. A memorial plaque to Beethoven on the house “At the Golden Unicorn” in Prague, where the composer stayed.
5. Monument to Beethoven in Bucharest.
6. Monument to Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart in Berlin.
7. Vienna Central Cemetery, where Beethoven is buried.

Episodes of life

Like Bach, Beethoven was sure that there was a divine element in his music. But if Bach believed that his talent was the merit of God, then Beethoven claimed that he communicated with God while writing music. He was known to have a slightly arrogant personality. One day a musician complained about a difficult and awkward passage in Beethoven's work, to which the composer indignantly replied: “When I wrote this, God Almighty guided me, do you really think that I could think about your little part when He spoke to me?”

Beethoven had many oddities. For example, before he started composing music, Beethoven lowered his head into a container of ice water, and at moments when difficulties arose in his work, he began to pour water onto his hands. Very often he walked around the house in wet clothes, without even noticing it and lost in his thoughts. Beethoven's neighbors often complained about water pouring from the ceiling.

Once Beethoven was walking with the German poet Hermann Goethe, and he was indignant that he was tired of the endless greetings of passers-by. To which Beethoven condescendingly replied: “Don’t let that bother you, Your Excellency. Perhaps the greetings are meant for me.”

Covenant

“People create their own destiny!”


Biography of Ludwig van Beethoven in the Encyclopedia Project

Condolences

"Haydn and Mozart, creators of the new instrumental music, were the first to show us art in its unprecedented splendor, but only Beethoven peered at it with great love and penetrated into its essence.”
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, writer, composer, artist

“The real reason for the success of Beethoven's music is that people study it not in concert halls, and at home, at the piano..."
Richard Wagner, composer

“Before the name of Beethoven, we must all bow down.”
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, composer

What did Beethoven really look like? In this matter, one has to trust the skill of the artists who had the opportunity to work with the great composer as a model. Here are attributed images of Beethoven that were taken "from life" and which can be considered as a historical document.

"Genuine" portraits of Beethoven.

This silhouette is by Joseph Neesen and is the first confirmed image of Beethoven that we have access to. According to his friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler, it was made in 1786 at the von Brüning family home in Bonn (where Beethoven gave music lessons and spent a lot of time as a friend of the house) on one of the two evenings when the silhouettes were made all family members.

The earliest attributed painting of Beethoven probably dates back to 1800. This is a portrait by the Austrian artist Gandolph Ernst Stainhauser von Treuberg, which was painted shortly after the composer's first great success in Vienna (the first "Academy" at the Burgtheater, 1800). The original portrait has not survived, but it served as the model for several engravings that were created in Vienna and Leipzig on behalf of Beethoven's publishers from 1801 to 1805.

Miniature portrait on ivory from 1803 by Danish artist Christian Horneman. Beethoven in this portrait looks like an elegant secular young man, dressed and haircut in the latest fashion. Apparently, the composer himself really liked the portrait, because a year later Beethoven gave it to his Bonn friend Stephan von Breuning as a sign of reconciliation. It can be assumed that the artist managed to perfectly convey the lively expression and inquisitive gaze of the young Beethoven.

The Viennese amateur artist Joseph Willibrord Mähler was introduced to Beethoven by Stefan von Breuning around 1803. A year later, in 1804, Mahler painted his first portrait of the composer - in an “academic” style, in the garden of Arcadia and with a lyre in his hand. The portrait is now kept in the Pasqualati-Haus Museum in Vienna. In the 19th century, this image became famous thanks to a lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, created based on it.

There are two versions of this portrait by Berlin artist Isidor Neugass. The first was created by order of one of Beethoven’s main patrons, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, in 1806, the second was commissioned by the Hungarian aristocratic Brunswick family, with whom the composer also maintained close friendly relations, presumably in 1805. The versions differ mainly in the color of the clothing, as well as one small detail: on the version belonging to the Brunswick family, you can see the lorgnette band (which in the literature is often called a watch chain), on the Lichnowsky version it is missing. Neugass chose the half-length portrait format, which was popular in Vienna at this time. The artist somewhat “smoothed out” Beethoven’s facial features (especially in Likhnovsky’s version), bringing them closer to the ideal that existed at that time.

Pencil drawing by Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld, probably 1808-1810. (Gleichenstein Collection) Under the drawing there is an inscription, the author of which is not identified: "From the old director Schnorr von Carolsfeld of Dresden, in 1808 or 1809 in the album of the Malfatti family in Munich. Property of Frau von Gleichenstein, née Malfatti in Freiburg in Breisgau."

Probably the only absolutely objective image of Beethoven can be considered the lifetime mask made in 1812 by the sculptor Franz Klein, on which many later sculptural and pictorial images are based. In 1812, Beethoven's friends, piano master Andreas Streicher and his wife Nanette, opened a large piano salon, which also served concert hall. They decided to decorate it with busts famous musicians, among which there should have been a bust of Beethoven, and as realistic as possible. The sculpture was commissioned from Franz Klein, who until 1805 was engaged in making plaster copies based on casts from the original for Franz Joseph Gall, doctor of medicine.

In 1814, the Viennese publisher Dominik Artaria published an engraving of Beethoven by the master Blasius Höfel. The sketch for the engraving was commissioned from a French artist named Louis-René Létronne, who worked between 1805 and 1817. in Vienna. However, Letronne's pencil drawing did not suit Hoefel, who turned to Beethoven with a request to pose for him again. The composer agreed, and Hoefel painted a new portrait, which ultimately served as a sketch for the engraving. Letronne's drawing also served as a sketch for at least one anonymous etching and is now kept in a private collection in Paris.

Beethoven was extremely pleased with the engraved portrait; he sent copies with personal dedications to his Bonn friends Gerhard Wegeler, Johann Heinrich Crevelt and Nikolaus Simrock. The composer at that moment was at the zenith of his fame after the premieres of his works dedicated to the Vienna Congress: the cantata “Der glorreiche Augenblick” Op. 136 and the battle symphonic piece "Wellingtons Sieg oder Schlacht bei Vittoria") Op. 91, as well as the successful revival of Fidelio.

The engraving quickly became popular in Vienna, and the following year the portrait was re-engraved by Karl Traugott Riedel in Leipzig. In 1817, this engraving was published in the Leipzig "Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung" and thus became widespread.

Interestingly, it was this image (more precisely, Hoefel’s version) that served as one of the basis for the theory about Beethoven’s African roots, which became widespread on the Internet.

A picturesque portrait by an unknown artist, probably drawn from an engraving by Hoefel or a drawing by Letronne, is kept in the La Scala theater.

The Russian German Gustav Fomich Gippius (Gustav Adolf Hippius) studied painting abroad and in 1814-1816. lived in Vienna. It is not known whether Beethoven posed for him; in any case, his pencil portrait of the composer (56x40 cm), presumably dating from 1815, is not a copy of any known image. The drawing is now kept in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.

Around 1815, Joseph Willibrord Mähler painted a series of portraits of contemporary Viennese composers, which included a portrait of Beethoven. Several versions of this portrait were created, one of which Mahler kept for himself and kept throughout his life.

Portrait by Johann Christoph Heckel, 1815. The portrait is now kept in the Library of Congress in Washington. On the website of the Beethoven-haus museum you can also see an anonymous copy of the painting (oil on canvas) and a lithograph by A. Hatzfeld.

Ferdinand Schimon painted several portraits of musicians, including Louis Spohr, Carl Maria von Weber and Beethoven. The history of this portrait of Beethoven, created in 1818, is known from the words of Anton Schindler, who, as he himself writes, was the initiator of this work by Shimon. Since Beethoven did not like to pose, Shimon worked on the portrait right in the composer's apartment while he was composing. However, it was not possible to complete the portrait in this way, and some time later, Beethoven invited the artist so that he could make the necessary improvements, which were especially needed in the area around the eyes. As a result, the composer was “quite satisfied” with the portrait obtained in such an intricate way.

In contrast to many other, idealized images of Beethoven, Klobert's pencil drawing, created in the summer of 1818 in Mödling, does a good job of conveying a direct and immediate perception of the composer's appearance (Beethoven did not sit for this portrait). According to Klobert's memoirs, Beethoven himself believed that nature was successfully captured in this sketch, and that his hairstyle turned out especially well.

Klobert created two more portraits of Beethoven based on this drawing. One of them, an oil on canvas, is now considered lost. It depicted Beethoven with his nephew Karl in the lap of nature. However, a charcoal and chalk drawing survives, created several years later, depicting Beethoven in a much more idealized form. There were two more versions of this drawing, but they have not survived.

Since the 1940s, Berlin lithographers Theodor Neu and Carl Fischer have produced several lithographs based on charcoal and chalk drawings - under the direct supervision of the artist, as evidenced by the inscriptions on some of the prints. Due to the widespread distribution of these lithographs, which were copied by many 19th century artists, this image of Beethoven became especially popular. Klobert's pencil drawing did not attract much attention until the 20th century.

Joseph Karl Stieler's portrait of Beethoven, painted in the spring of 1820, is perhaps the most popular depiction of the composer. Stieler's portrait shaped the general public's understanding of Beethoven's personality and appearance for two centuries. In the eyes of subsequent generations, in his idealized image, the artist captured the creative genius of the great composer. The portrait was commissioned by the couple Franz and Antonie Brentano, who had been Beethoven's friends since around 1810. The Conversation Notebooks provide a fairly detailed picture of the origins of the portrait. The composer posed for this portrait 4 times - an unusually large number, since, according to Beethoven himself, he was unable to sit still for long.

In 1823, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller received an order from the Leipzig publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel for a portrait of Beethoven. As can be seen from several letters and entries in "conversation notebooks", the composer posed for this portrait only once. Moreover, the session was interrupted ahead of time and there was no continuation. Therefore, it is assumed that Waldmüller only managed to paint the composer's face, and the clothes and, possibly, some of the hair were added later.

Portrait of 1823 by Johann Stephan Decker. This is the last known portrait of Beethoven and is now kept in the Vienna City Historical Museum (Hisctorisches Museum der Stadt Wien).

Bibliography:
Comini, Alessandra. The changing image of Beethoven: a study in mythmaking. New York: Rizzoli, 1987.
"Ludwig Van Beethoven, Bicentennial Edition 1770-1970", LOC 70-100925, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, 1970.
Robert Bory. Ludwig van Beethoven: His Life and His Work in Pictures. Atlantis Books, Zurich, 1960.
http://www.mozartportraits.com/index.php?p=3&CatID=1

“Moonlight Sonata” was actually dedicated not to the moon, but to an 18-year-old girl, and the author’s title of this composition is “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor.” This is known only to experts in the history of music - as, probably, is the fact that the exact date of birth of Ludwig van Beethoven still remains a mystery. Nevertheless, this will not prevent all music lovers and Fashion-concert readers from celebrating the birth of the great “gloomy” genius of music on December 16th.

Beethoven said a new word in culture, bringing music from the stage of the entertainment genre to the heights of art. He not only made the main instrument the piano, which had a more powerful, “orchestral” sound compared to the harpsichord, which was in fashion, but also became the founder of romanticism, with its bright emotional storms as opposed to refined classicism.

The appearance and character of the German composer were equally revolutionary for his contemporaries, and perhaps best of all, the artist Joseph Stieler was able to capture them. The portrait, created in the spring of 1820, is the most widely reproduced image of Beethoven. And it’s not surprising - this picture has an abyss of unique details.

Firstly, the composer's famous unruly cowlicks are shown here: acquaintances often reproached him for the lack of a “decent” hairstyle, but Ludwig Beethoven did not want to change it to please the tastes of the public. This behavior was very typical of him; he often openly went against social principles. Take, for example, the incident in Teplice, which became the talk of the town and the subject of cartoon drawings. Legend has it that one day Beethoven and Goethe, while walking together, met Emperor Franz surrounded by his retinue. Goethe, stepping aside, made a deep bow to the highest person, while Beethoven walked through the crowd of courtiers, barely touching his hat.

Secondly, the facial expression, burning cheeks and concentrated gaze of the person being portrayed vividly convey the strong character and rebellious spirit of the creator. This, of course, can also be attributed to the conditions in which the artist and composer worked. It is known that Beethoven posed for this portrait four times - an unusually large number, since, according to the composer himself, he was unable to sit still for long. He considered meetings with Stieler a punishment and agreed to pose for him only at the request of friends. However, he finally lost patience ahead of schedule, and Stieler wrote Beethoven’s hands from memory.

Thirdly, Beethoven is depicted in the process of work, at the most intimate moment of creativity, which also meets the ideals of romanticism. The composer assured that he communicated with God while composing music and spared no time and effort, wanting to achieve perfection. One day one of the violinists complained to him about a very inconvenient passage in one of his compositions. “When I wrote this, God Almighty guided me,” Beethoven answered. “Do you really think that I could be thinking about your little party when He spoke to me?”

The portrait is kept in the Beethovenhaus museum in Bonn, hometown German genius. Interestingly, this already textbook painting was overtaken by a second wave of popularity thanks to Andy Warhol, who in 1967 took it as the basis for his images of Beethoven.

I looked at the portrait with you

Who is “Moonlight Sonata” dedicated to?

One of the most famous in history musical works the great, unsurpassed Beethoven, called “Moonlight Sonata”, was dedicated to the young Juliet Guicciardi.

The girl won the heart of the young composer and then cruelly broke him. But it is to Juliet that we owe the fact that we can listen to the music of the best sonata of the brilliant composer, which penetrates so deeply into the soul.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was born in the German city of Bonn. The childhood years can be called the most difficult in the life of the future composer. It was difficult for the proud and independent boy to cope with the fact that his father, a rude and despotic man, noticing his son’s musical talent, decided to use him for selfish purposes.

Forcing little Ludwig to sit at the harpsichord from morning to night, he did not think that his son needed childhood so much. At the age of eight, Beethoven earned his first money - he gave a public concert, and by the age of twelve the boy was fluent in playing the violin and organ. Along with success came isolation, a need for solitude and unsociability for the young musician.

At the same time, Christian Gottlieb Nefe, his wise and kind mentor, appeared in the life of the future composer. It was he who instilled in the boy a sense of beauty, taught him to understand nature, art, and understand human life.

Nefe taught Ludwig ancient languages, philosophy, literature, history, and ethics. Subsequently, being a deeply and broadly thinking person, Beethoven became an adherent of the principles of freedom, humanism, and equality of all people.
In 1787, the young Beethoven left Bonn and went to Vienna.

Beautiful Vienna - a city of theaters and cathedrals, street orchestras and love serenades under the windows - won the heart young genius. But it was there that the young musician was struck by deafness: at first the sounds seemed muffled to him, then he repeated unheard phrases several times, then he realized that he was completely losing his hearing. “I lead a bitter existence,” Beethoven wrote to his friend. - I'm deaf. With my profession, nothing could be more terrible... Oh, if I could get rid of this disease, I would embrace the whole world.”

But the horror of progressive deafness was replaced by happiness from meeting a young aristocrat, Italian by birth, Giulietta Guicciardi (1784-1856). Juliet, daughter of the rich and noble Count Guicciardi, arrived in Vienna in 1800. She was not even seventeen then, but the young girl’s love of life and charm captivated the thirty-year-old composer, and he immediately admitted to his friends that he had fallen in love ardently and passionately.

He was sure that the same tender feelings arose in the heart of the mocking coquette. In a letter to his friend, Beethoven emphasized: “This wonderful girl is so loved by me and loves me that I observe an amazing change in myself precisely because of her.”

A few months after their first meeting, Beethoven invited Juliet to take some from him. free lessons playing the piano. She happily accepted this offer, and in return for such generous gift presented her teacher with several shirts she had embroidered. Beethoven was a strict teacher.

When he didn’t like Juliet’s playing, frustrated, he threw the notes on the floor, pointedly turned away from the girl, and she silently collected the notebooks from the floor. Six months later, at the peak of his feelings, Beethoven began creating a new sonata, which after his death would be called “Moonlight”. It is dedicated to Countess Guicciardi and was started in the state great love, delight and hope.

He, angry, asked the young countess not to come to him anymore. “I despised her,” Beethoven recalled much later. “After all, if I wanted to give my life to this love, what would be left for the noble, for the highest?” And the aristocratic student, having become Countess Gallenberg, left Vienna and went to Italy.

In mental turmoil in October 1802, Beethoven left Vienna and went to Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the famous “Heiligenstadt Testament”: “Oh, you people who think that I am evil, stubborn, ill-mannered, how unfair you are to me; you do not know the secret reason for what seems to you. In my heart and mind, since childhood, I have been predisposed to a tender sense of kindness, I have always been ready to accomplish great things.

But just think that for six years now I have been in an unfortunate state... I am completely deaf..."
Fear and the collapse of hopes give rise to thoughts of suicide in the composer. But Beethoven gathered his strength and decided to start new life and in almost absolute deafness he created great masterpieces.

Several years passed, and Juliet returned to Austria and came to Beethoven’s apartment. Crying, she recalled the wonderful time when the composer was her teacher, talked about the poverty and difficulties of her family, asked to forgive her and help with money. Being a kind and noble man, the maestro gave her a significant amount, but asked her to leave and never appear in his house.

Beethoven seemed indifferent and indifferent. But who knows what was going on in his heart, tormented by numerous disappointments. At the end of his life, the composer will write: “I was very loved by her and more than ever, I was her husband...”

Trying to erase his beloved from his memory forever, the composer dated other women. One day, seeing the beautiful Josephine Brunswick, he immediately confessed his love to her, but in response he received only a polite but unequivocal refusal.

Then, in desperation, Beethoven proposed to Josephine’s older sister, Teresa. But she did the same, coming up with a beautiful fairy tale about the impossibility of meeting the composer.

The genius more than once recalled how women humiliated him. One day, a young singer from a Viennese theater, when asked to meet with her, responded mockingly that “the composer is so ugly in his appearance, and besides, it seems too strange to her” that she does not intend to meet with him.

Ludwig van Beethoven really did not take care of his appearance and often remained unkempt. He could hardly be called independent in everyday life; he required constant care from a woman.

When Giulietta Guicciardi, while still a student of the maestro, noticed that Beethoven’s silk bow was not tied properly, tied it up and kissed his forehead, the composer did not take off this bow and did not change his clothes for several weeks, until friends hinted at his not quite fresh appearance suit.

Too sincere and open, disdainful of hypocrisy and servility, Beethoven often seemed rude and ill-mannered. He often expressed himself obscenely, which is why many considered him a plebeian and an ignorant boor, although the composer was simply telling the truth.

In the autumn of 1826, Beethoven fell ill. Grueling treatment and three complex operations could not get the composer back on his feet. All winter, without getting out of bed, completely deaf, he suffered because... he could not continue to work. On March 26, 1827, the great musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven died.

After his death, a letter “To the Immortal Beloved” was found in a desk drawer.<Так Бетховен озаглавил письмо сам (авт.)>: “My angel, my everything, my self... Why is there deep sadness where necessity reigns?

Can our love survive only at the cost of sacrifices and renunciation of completeness? Can’t you change the situation in which you are not entirely mine and I am not entirely yours? What a life! Without you! So close! So far! What longing and tears for you - you - you, my life, my everything...”

Many will then argue about who exactly the message is addressed to. But a small fact points specifically to Juliet Guicciardi: next to the letter was kept a tiny portrait of Beethoven’s beloved, made by an unknown master.

As a composer, is that he increased to the highest degree the ability to express instrumental music in conveying emotional moods and extremely expanded its forms. Based on the works of Haydn and Mozart in the first period of his work, Beethoven then began to give the instruments the expressiveness characteristic of each of them, so much so that they, both independently (especially the piano) and in the orchestra, acquired the ability to express the highest ideas and deepest moods human soul. The difference between Beethoven and Haydn and Mozart, who also had already brought the language of instruments to a high degree of development, is that he modified the forms of instrumental music derived from them, and added deep inner content to the impeccable beauty of the form. Under his hands, the minuet expands into a meaningful scherzo; the finale, which in most cases was a lively, cheerful and unpretentious part for his predecessors, becomes for him the culminating point of the development of the entire work and often surpasses the first part in the breadth and grandeur of its concept. In contrast to the balance of voices, which gives Mozart’s music a character of dispassionate objectivity, Beethoven often gives predominance to the first voice, which gives his compositions a subjective shade, which makes it possible to connect all parts of the work with the unity of mood and idea. What he indicated in some works, such as the Heroic or Pastoral symphonies, with appropriate inscriptions, is observed in most of his instrumental works: the spiritual moods poetically expressed in them are in close correlation with each other, and therefore these works fully deserve the name of poems.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven. Artist J. K. Stieler, 1820

The number of Beethoven's works, not counting works without opus designation, is 138. These include 9 symphonies (the last with a finale for chorus and orchestra on Schiller's ode to Joy), 7 concertos, 1 septet, 2 sextets, 3 quintets, 16 strings quartets, 36 piano sonatas, 16 sonatas for piano with other instruments, 8 piano trios, 1 opera, 2 cantatas, 1 oratorio, 2 large masses, several overtures, music for Egmont, The Ruins of Athens, etc., and numerous works for piano and for single and polyphonic singing.

Ludwig van Beethoven. Best works

By their nature, these writings clearly outline three periods, with a preparatory period ending in 1795. The first period covers the years from 1795 to 1803 (until the 29th work). In the works of this time, the influence of Haydn and Mozart is still clearly visible, but (especially in the piano works, both in the form of a concerto and in the sonata and variations), a desire for independence is already noticeable - and not only from the technical side. The second period begins in 1803 and ends in 1816 (until the 58th work). Here appears a brilliant composer in the full and rich flowering of his mature artistic individuality. The works of this period, revealing the whole world richest life sensations, at the same time can serve as an example of a wonderful and complete harmony between content and form. The third period includes works with grandiose content, in which, due to Beethoven’s renunciation due to complete deafness from the outside world, thoughts become even deeper, become more exciting, often more immediate than before, but the unity of thought and form in them turns out to be less perfect and often is sacrificed to the subjectivity of mood.