The power and polish of Beethoven’s music is matched only by its prodigious quantity: piano sonatas, string chamber works, songs, an opera, a ballet, two huge masses, seven large-scale concertos, nine symphonies and a goodly handful of odd concert overtures.
Born in Bonn, the young Beethoven moved to Vienna where he quickly fell under the influence of the titanic trio of J. S. Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But even his earliest piano works exhibit an inventiveness and mastery that is all Beethoven. By his second symphony he was already breaking new musical ground. His third symphony, Eroica, was the first large-orchestra, extended-length modern symphony ever written, and set a standard that composers would follow for more than a century. By his sixth symphony Beethoven had begun exploring a musical mode both more introspective and programmatic (sound descriptive) than anything preceding it, and thereby gave birth to what would latter be called Romantic Music - a style that lasted well into the twentieth century.
Beethoven was a child of the Enlightenment and concentrated on musical motifs that were as heroic and uplifting as his era, juxtaposed with adagios at once somber and tragic. Then as now audiences were transfixed by the sheer magnificence of his larger-than-life music.
Beethoven took pride in living as a common man. He never married but took several lovers. Beethoven also had no children, but treated his nephew, Karl, like a son. He was hardworking and cantankerous at times, at other times full of humor. As he aged he became progressively harder of hearing, and composed many of his last works completely deaf, which may account for the choppy nature of some of his latter output. But even in these pieces, Beethoven’s brilliance shines through - a brilliance born of an incredible talent and a ceaseless labor of love...his immortal beloved...his music.

- Greg Knepp, ClassicT-Shirt.com

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