BEETHOVEN
HIS MUSICAL CREATIVITY

A celebration in learning, designed to heighten your experience of the music of history’s epochal composer, the bold genius who brought Viennese Classicism to its peak & set the stage for Romanticism – presented via commentary, portraits, video clips & live performances.

Lecture 1 - The Bonn & Haydn Years
Beethoven’s youthful compositions, his study in Vienna & increasing notoriety as a new kind of pianist; his mastery of High Classic styles & media - seen in the first concerti, symphonies, string quartets, violin & piano sonatas.

Lecture 2 - Virtuosity & the Heroic Manner I
Beethoven’s emergence as a new type of composer - expanding form, emotional range, instrumental skill & orchestral timbre – seen in Symphonies Nos. 3, 4 & 5, Piano Concerti Nos. 3 & 4, the Triple Concerto & middle piano sonatas.

Lecture 3 - Virtuosity & the Heroic Manner II
Beethoven’s growth in society, his even bolder innovations & his deafness, the idea of freedom; Symphony No. 6, the development of the opera Fidelio, the middle quartets & sonatas, Piano Concerto No. 5, the Violin Concerto.

Lecture 4 -FurtherTransformation
Beethoven’s ascendancy; The Congress of Vienna; Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8, the transitional sonatas & quartets, Fidelio’s final version, the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, Choral Fantasy, Wellington’s Victory.

Lecture 5 - Beyond the Horizon
Beethoven’s final years, total deafness, greatest works – the last sonatas & quartets, the Great Fugue, Diabelli Variations, Missa Solemnis, Symphony No. 9 - & his posthumous fame.

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