Ludwig Van Beeethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Biography

He was baptized on December 17th 1770 at Bonn. On March 26th 1778, at the age of 7 ½, Ludwig Van Beethoven gave his first public performance at Cologne. His father announced that he was 6 years-old. Because of this Beethoven always thought that he was younger than he actually was. Even much later, when he received a copy of his baptism certificate, he thought it belonged to his brother Ludwig Maria, who was born two years before him and died as a child. The musical and teaching talents of Johann were limited. Soon Ludwig learned music, notably the organ and composition by renowned musicians such as Gottlob Neefe. Neefe recognized how extraordinarily talented Beethoven was and not only did Neefe teach him music, but he made the works of philosophers, ancient and modern, known to Beethoven as well.

In 1782, before the age of 12, Beethoven published his first work, 9 Variations in C Minor for piano on a march by Earnst Christoph Dressler (WoO 63). The following year, in 1783, Neefe wrote in the Magazine of Music, about his student. “If he continues like this, he will be, without a doubt, the new Mozart.”

In 1800, Beethoven organized a new concert at Vienna including, notably, the presentation of his first symphony. Although today we find this work classical, and close to the works of Mozart and Haydn, at the time certain listeners found the symphony strange, overly extravagant, and even risqué’. This genius, Beethoven, who was still a young, new composer, was already pushing the established boundaries of music. On April 7th, 1805, the Eroica symphony was played for the first time.

Meanwhile, Beethoven had finally finished his opera, Leonore, the only opera he ever wrote. He wrote and re-wrote four different overtures. The name of the opera therefore, changed to Fidelio, against the wishes of the composer. November 20th 1805 was the date of the opening performance before a small audience of French officers. This was because...