All language subtitles for [English] In Search of Beethoven [DownSub.com]

(joyful classical music)

- [Man] If we had to pick

10 things that are great about humanity,

there would probably be

several Beethoven works amongst them.

- [Man] Where does Beethoven rank

in the history of western music?

And I suppose there I would say,

Beethoven is one of the gods.

- [Man] It's been famously said

that in a sense he's defined

what music means, what music is.

- [Man] I would definitely
say that Beethoven

is the greatest composer who ever lived.

- [Woman] His music is so firmly rooted

in everything human,

with all of its frailties

and weaknesses and shortcomings.

He's perceived often as
a misanthropic character,

but his music is also the music
of an inveterate optimist,

of someone who never gives up in thinking

that man can be better.

(dramatic classical music)

- [Juliet] Winter, 1825.

At his home in Vienna,

the world's greatest composer is writing

what will be one of his last works,

his Opus Number 133.

Some call it in comprehensible,

the work of a lunatic.

Others acclaim yet another masterpiece

in an extraordinary life.

A life that begins in obscurity,

here beside the Rhine in
the German town of Bonn.

(bells ringing)

In the middle of December, 1770,

in a top floor bedroom,

Bonn gained a new inhabitant.

Ludwig van Beethoven was the
first child to survive infancy

of Johann and Maria van Beethoven.

Little is known if his parents.

No portraits exist.

It seems his mother was mild mannered,

while his father was stern.

Both Johann, and his father before him,

were court musicians.

The same path was laid out for Ludwig.

At age seven, he gave
his first public concert.

His father taught him at first,

then saw the need to employ
more skilled teachers.

- One of Beethoven's teachers in Bonn

was Christian Gottlob Neefe.

If I take a little bit from a sonata,

this is probably the sort of music

that Beethoven had to learn as a student.

- [Juliet] Neefe, who was court organist,

made his promising student, his assistant.

The young boy played this
keyboard for hours on end,

and at 13, wrote a piano concerto.

- It's extremely virtuoso.

There's almost too much piano in it.

The piano just goes up
and down and up and down,

in thirds, in octaves.

This is typically a piece where he was

showing off his pianistic abilities.

If I just concentrate
on playing, I can do it.

It's almost unpleasant to play.

It's amazing that he could write it,

but it's much more amazing
that he could play it.

- Beethoven, like Mozart as a boy,

would be able to sit down and improvise.

He could,

his friends would no doubt say,

play as a love song,

and he would make up a love song.

Play us a battle, a battle he would play.

He would write a battle.

Play us a storm.

He would write a storm.

I think I'll use that later
in my symphony number six.

- Bonn was a rather cultivated place.

Successive electors of Bonn

had encouraged music and philosophy,

and various other pursuits of the time.

When Beethoven was 14,

a new elector arrived, Maximilian Franz,

who believed in the
new philosophical ideas

and was also extremely musical.

- [Juliet] Bonn's nobles took their lead

from this new elector,

who was both their Archbishop and Prince.

Under his enlightened rule,

musical life flourished.

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic orchestral music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Juliet] Other details
of his youth are vague.

What is known, is that
Beethoven secured a post

playing viola in the court orchestra,

performing works by the two
greatest composers of the age.

The first was Wolfgang Mozart,

born in Salzburg, but
now living in Vienna.

In his short lifetime, Mozart
composed over 650 works,

including 27 piano concertos

and 41 orchestral symphonies.

(dramatic orchestral music)

The second was Joseph
Haydn, also in Vienna,

and just as prolific as Mozart.

These were the giants
Beethoven looked up to.

- By his mid-teens Beethoven
was considered to be

a prodigy of potentially
Mozartian proportions.

And the next step for

a young musician in his situation

would have been to travel to the center

of German musical culture, that is Vienna,

to meet with, and hopefully
study with the best masters,

in this case, Mozart himself.

So in 1787, Beethoven did travel to Vienna

and legend has it that he met with Mozart.

But in fact, there's no
evidence that he did.

The historical record is
in fact blank on this.

And regardless, after two weeks,

Beethoven was forced
to return home to Bonn,

as his mother had become seriously ill.

- [Ludwig] Dear Doctor von Schadan,

She died, after enduring
great pain and agony.

Who was happier than I

when I could still utter
the sweet name of mother,

and it was heard and answered?

I am unhappy.

I've been plagued with
asthma and melancholia.

- [Juliet] Beethoven's young
sister died soon after,

and the fortune of the
family, the widowed father,

Ludwig and his two younger
brothers, declined.

It seems Beethoven's father took to drink.

The teenaged Beethoven
took it upon himself

to become head of the household.

In 1792, fortune favored Beethoven.

While traveling through Bonn,

Haydn breakfasted in this dance hall.

Beethoven introduced himself,

and handed him the score of a recent work.

Haydn was impressed,
so impressed he offered

to tutor Beethoven at his home in Vienna.

The elector granted permission

for his employee, Beethoven, to leave.

And in November, 1792,

Beethoven, age 21, arrived
once again in Vienna.

(opera music)

Letters of introduction opened doors,

and he was helped to find a room,

a piano, a wig, and new clothes.

Beethoven made his way around the palaces

of Vienna's nobility,

Lichnowsky, Razumovsky,
van Kase, van Swieten,

Kinsky, Lobkowitz,

with their music rooms
and private orchestras.

Beethoven could not have been

in a better place at a better time.

- There is this idea in the air

among those connoisseurs
who had heard Beethoven

and followed his progress so far,

that this might be the
next really big person.

He was dressed well,
looked quite striking.

He seems to have been, in some ways,

a quite fashionable figure.

He even briefly owned a horse,

though he characteristically
forgot to feed it.

He was also brusque, rude, forthright,

an impatient young man.

- [Juliet] By night, he
lived it up in Vienna,

but by day he studied hard with Haydn.

- At some point during his tuition,

Beethoven complained to Haydn

that he was not getting enough money

from the elector to
support himself in Vienna,

and he undoubtedly was
looking to have more time

and trying not to return to Bonn.

So Haydn took it upon himself
to write to the elector,

enclosing some pieces
Beethoven had given him,

and suggesting that certainly Beethoven

have a higher stipend.

Haydn was shocked when
he received a letter back

from the elector in Bonn,

saying essentially that
not only had Beethoven

misrepresented the amount
of money he was getting,

but also that the compositions

that Beethoven had given
Haydn, were not new ones.

What Beethoven had done was
a little bit of a con game.

He behaved to some extent
like a scam artist.

The upshot of this episode

was that the elector
wrote to Haydn and said,

perhaps it's time for Herr
Beethoven to come home.

- [Juliet] Beethoven never
had to make that trip home.

News came that a French army

had reached Bonn and
forced the elector to flee.

Beethoven could try and establish himself

as an independent musician.

- Up to Beethoven's time,

composers were primarily expected

to fulfill the demands of their employees,

and to write the expected sort of music

for church services,

or court balls or whatever it would be.

By the late 18th century,

the old system is beginning to break down.

- Audiences were wider.

That's just inside the court,

and music was being sold wider,

and it was being written for everybody.

- [Juliet] In early 1795,
at a charity concert

for the widows and orphans of musicians,

Beethoven had the chance to show off

before a wider audience at the
popular (mumbling) Theater.

The piece was one of
his own piano concertos.

- [Roger] Mozart had shown the way.

The piano concertos are
for showing off, Mozart.

Beethoven knew about piano concertos.

I think he thought at that stage,

that's what he would
be, a composer pianist,

but very much a pianist
for the rest of his life.

He would certainly have
wanted to show his dexterity,

his skill, his brilliance at the keyboard.

But as a budding composer,

of course, he also wanted to show

what marvelous musical ideas he had.

- I think with any work on Beethoven,

it's the force of his
personality, which is so strong.

Simultaneously in this piece,

you feel this tremendous
admiration and respect

for the greatest composers of the past,

and you feel his own
personality asserting itself.

- Nowadays composers
somehow aren't supposed to

imitate other people, you know,

they've gotta be original, originality.

In the old days it
wasn't like that at all.

I mean, Bach imitated people,

Handel borrowed ideas,

Mozart borrowed ideas,

Haydn borrowed ideas.

You learn from your parents.

You learn from your teachers,

you imitate their style for a bit,

and then you go your own way.

Beethoven unashamedly

wanted to be as good as Haydn and Mozart,

and then when he found he
was, he wanted to be a better.

- [Ludwig] Vienna, June, 1794.

To Eleonore von Breuning, Bonn.

The piano variations I have written

will be rather difficult to play.

I resolved to embarrass
those Viennese pianists,

some of whom pass my
style off as their own,

and are thus my sworn enemies.

I wanted to take revenge,

because I knew they'll try
to play these new pieces

and that they'd struggle.

- Sometimes you get a vivid snapshot,

the famous snapshot of him being asked

in a drawing room to play something.

Play, play something please,
please Herr Beethoven,

in Vienna when he was younger,

and he didn't really want to do it,

but he sat down at the,

he sat down at the keyboard,

opened up the lid and waited for a moment.

And then he just,

he brought his arms on all the keys.

"That's my piece for this
evening," and got up and left.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Ludwig] Vienna, August, 1794.

We're having very hot weather here,

and the Viennese are afraid that soon

they will not be able to
get any more ice cream.

As the winter was so mild, ice is scarce.

Here, various important
people have been locked up.

It is said that a revolution
is about to break out,

but I believe, that so long as an Austrian

can get his brown ale
and his little sausages,

he's not likely to revolt.

If your daughters are grown up,

prepare one to be my bride.

Times are bad.

My exchequer is completely empty,

and I am driven to ask you for loan,

but my art is winning
me friends and renown,

and what more do I want?

I'm sure I'll soon make
a great deal of money.

- It's really worth bearing
in mind that in the 1790s,

Beethoven was really the preeminent

keyboard virtuoso in Vienna.

I mean, he was really the
number one keyboard star.

He was kind of, you know, the big name.

- [Juliet] At 24, Beethoven's reputation

gave him the stature to publish his work,

beginning with his Opus Number One.

The growing business of publishing

paid a one off fee to composers.

These fees became Beethoven's
main source of income.

Hardly had Opus One reached
Vienna's musical elite,

then a new publication arrived, Opus Two.

- It must have created a sort of shock,

and in Vienna, it's such
passionate, new music.

So there's a,

things are getting closer

and tension is getting higher, of course.

So this is a way

which is totally unknown
to Mozart and Haydn,

who generally build their ideas

on a classical elegant symmetry.

There's something, there's the answer.

Another thing, the answer to
this other thing, a new idea,

and so the music is going on like this,

with this fantastic and beautiful sense

of symmetry and harmony,

while Beethoven goes through

building tension for the listener.

And most of his pieces

have this kind of progression,

in time, in rhythm, in tension,

in building up this dramatic urge.

- He must've had a hand that was

quite large, or at least quite capable

of being spread out,

because he'd write things,
there's this sonata,

the second Sonata that he wrote,

and there's a passage in
it that goes like this.

Which of course is what every
pianist does in this spot.

But in fact, he writes a
fingering for it, he himself,

and the fingering is this.

So, no left hand.

So he would probably put
his left hand in the air

and see him, I'm doing
this on my own, you know?

It's actually, I've never seen any pianist

who could possibly do this.

So of course, the standard
way of performing it is,

just use your two hands,
which he may have,

he may have left out
chords for the left hand,

just in order to let
lesser pianists play this.

Or this may be a great
cosmic joke that fingering,

which he put into annoy everybody else.

- [Juliet] Beethoven continued
to release bold new works

in different styles, and
for different instruments.

(soft cello music)

- That's the beginning

of the Allegra of this first movement,

so the real movement starts.

And before that we had
like three, four minutes

of slow introduction,

and the slow introduction
comes to this complete stop.

And for a 26-year-old,
unbelievable the arrogance

this guy must have had to just freeze,

freeze the time like this,

and he has the pianist play these chords.

(humming)

Two, three,

four, and then the cello comes.

- [Juliet] Life was good.

Extra income was coming in

from a lucrative sideline in piano lessons

for Vienna's wealthy.

His search for fame and
fortune was going well,

his search for a wife, less so.

- I think a lot of Beethoven sonatas

were actually composed
or dedicated to female,

you could call them students of his,

or ladies he admired.

Beethoven was actually forever in love

with all his students and
all the ladies he met.

And one of his ways of showing it,

was to write them a piano sonata.

So they all had their
own Beethoven sonata.

These were dedicated to the
Countess from Braun Michael,

the British diplomat in Vienna.

And Beethoven must have
liked her very much,

considering the cheerful music he wrote.

He actually wasn't interested

in writing piano sonatas at all.

What he really wanted to do

was write symphonies and operas,

and these piano sonatas,
they were highly popular.

I mean, they sold well,

so he felt he had to produce them too,

to keep generating money.

- [Juliet] Beethoven felt ready

to take on Mozart and Haydn

in the pinnacle of private
music, string quartets.

(uptempo string music)

- I see that at the
base of the Opus 18 as,

bursting with confidence in his
own extraordinary abilities,

completely sure that he's a genius.

- [Juliet] At 29, Beethoven
gave a first concert

for his own benefit.

He included works by Mozart and Haydn,

and premiered his first symphony.

I strongly believe the first chord

of the first symphony, Beethoven symphony,

probably sounded as a
shock to the audience.

(speaking in foreign language)
Ludwig van Beethoven.

- The first symphony is a masterpiece,

from the first pizzicato again,

the pizzicato which
opens is a shower, what?

And then again.

And then again you see,

pizzicato is so original there.

- [Ludwig] Vienna, January, 1801.

Dear Herr Hoffmeister,

I'm offering to sell you a symphony.

How much it's worth does not concern me

because I'm really an
incompetent businessman

who is bad at arithmetic.

There ought to be in the
world a market for art,

where the artist would only
have to bring his works,

and take as much money as he needed.

But, as it is, an artist has
to be a businessman as well.

- [Juliet] The quartets and the symphony

were modestly received.

But having sold the rights to his music,

Beethoven's future earnings
had to come from new work.

- [Ludwig] June 29th, 1801.

Dear friend,

My compositions bring me in a good deal.

I'm offered more commissions

than it is possible for me to carry out.

But my wretched health has
put a nasty spoke in my wheel.

My ears hum and buzz day and night.

I lead a miserable life.

For almost two years I
have ceased to attend

any social functions,

just because I find it
impossible to say to people,

I am deaf.

In my profession, it
is a terrible handicap.

At a distance, I cannot hear

the high notes of instruments or voices.

November 16th, 1801.

Dear friend,

For the last few months, Doctor Varing

has made me apply to both
arms a certain kind of bark.

It is an extremely unpleasant treatment.

However, I am now leading a
slightly more pleasant life,

brought about by a dear charming girl,

who loves me and whom I love.

For the first time I feel that marriage

might bring me happiness.

Unfortunately, I am not of her class.

- [Juliet] The dear charming
girl was probably a pupil,

the teenage Countess, Julieta Guicciardi.

To her, he dedicated
his Opus 27, Number Two,

later called the Moonlight Sonata.

Julieta's parents, it seems,

would not allow her to
marry a mere piano teacher.

(dark piano music)

- Beethoven sat down at some point,

and thought, I'll start
a sonata differently.

I want it to have a fast
movement at the beginning.

I'll have a slow, completely
introvert movement,

that has a very, very,
extremely simple tune,

and one that's endlessly sad.

- [Juliet] Frequent sickness
and declining hearing,

allied with a deep love
of the countryside,

spurred him to leave Vienna each summer,

for the rural peace and thermal spas

that lay just beyond the city walls.

In 1802, he came to the
village of Heiligenstadt.

(sentimental piano music)

- It's in this very room

that he wrote his so-called
Heiligenstadt Testament,

which was a letter of utter desperation.

Suicidal, Beethoven was
having a mental breakdown.

He was thinking of killing himself.

- [Ludwig] Ever since my childhood,

my heart and soul have been imbued

with a tender feeling of goodwill.

But just think, for the last few years

I've been inflicted with
an incurable complaint,

endowed with a passionate
and lively temperament,

I was soon obliged to seclude
myself and live in solitude.

I could not bring myself to say to people,

speak up, shout, I am deaf.

My misfortune pains me doubly,

inasmuch as it leads
to my being misjudged,

I must live like an outcast.

How humiliated I have felt.

If somebody heard a shepherd
sing, I heard nothing.

Such experiences almost made me despair.

And I was on the point of
putting an end to my life.

The only thing that
held me back was my art,

for indeed it seemed to me impossible

to leave this world before I had produced

all the works that I had
felt the urge to compose.

And thus, I have dragged on
this miserable existence.

Oh mighty God, look down
into my innermost soul.

You see into my heart,

and You know that it is
filled with love for humanity,

and a desire to do good.

- [Juliet] From the pit of despair,

Beethoven emerged more defiant.

God had given him a rare talent.

He wasn't going to waste it.

- The (mumbling) Sonata for me,

I find one of the greatest
sonatas that he wrote

for violin and piano.

It's a huge piece.

It's maybe a piece where he,

where he tries to find extremes.

Also its incredible tension.

I think from (mumbling) violin sonatas,

I mean, sonatas for piano and violin,

it is for me definitely

the wildest one and technically also

the most demanding one.

(speaking in foreign language)

Is the Dutch word,

which maybe

also marks that period in
his life, I don't know.

There's so much almost brewing there and

boiling.

(dramatic piano music)

- It's incredibly dramatic.

The orchestral Tori is long.

The piano plays very melancholy,

unbelievably varied music.

(dramatic orchestral music)

Stylistically speaking,

the beginning of the 19th century,

and the composition

of the C Minor Piano Concerto of Beethoven

represents an unbelievable watershed,

a kind of massive break with tradition.

(dramatic music)

- That's the divide.

That's the kind of

the earthquake movie or the
earth moves between two areas.

Suddenly one is thrust into the air,

and the other goes down.

That's the Beethoven,

that's the Beethoven experience.

That's extraordinary new creativity,

new explosive force that
Beethoven brings to the world.

Not in the first and
second piano concertos,

but in the third, and particularly
in the third symphony,

of course, which is wild.

Immensely ambitious, a monster.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- The range of Beethoven is fundamental

to the greatness of his art,

the degree to which every single work

is different from every other.

Each, it has been said
often about Beethoven,

that every work inhabits
a sound world of its own,

and yet he could write a 50 minute work,

all in that one sound mode,

is perhaps fundamental to his greatness.

- I've always been considering
the symphony very complex,

probably too complex for me to approach.

But when I started very carefully,

I just took a serious amount
of time, and I learned it.

I discovered such a

power in composing

and such a precision in saying,

in writing what he wanted to say,

to find the right words,

the right notes, to say what
he wanted, what he meant.

And now today,

today I'm here and am considering

at least the first movement

of Eroica as the best
written first movement

of any symphony.

It's so masterfully written.

The power of the March of
(mumbling), the Travel March,

is incredible,

is so deeply, so moving,

even when comes the midsection

with this fugato this fuga,

and when the energy is just

growing, growing, growing, growing

until a limit to probably,
before Beethoven,

no one could achieve.

- [Juliet] Beethoven's third
symphony is significant,

not only musically, but historically.

Beethoven was inspired
by the French revolution.

Liberty, equality, and fraternity,

and by the rise of a fellow genius.

Napoleon Bonaparte had crushed
the Austrians in battle,

but an uneasy truce now reigned.

Beethoven could safely name
his new symphony, Bonaparte.

- Beethoven may well have felt,

as did a lot of people at the time,

that this military conquest
was not primarily military,

but primarily a philosophical
and political, you know,

a social revolution, and
that the result would be,

not the Viennese finding themselves

under the thumb of another dictator,

but the Viennese being set free
to pursue enlightened goals.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- It's an interesting
question because Beethoven

would have written such explosive music

as he sometimes did,

without the prompting from

world events at the time.

Beethoven was intensely interested

in the events in Paris in 1789.

He knew people at the
French embassy in Vienna,

and heard a lot about what
was going on in Paris.

He was very excited by the idea

of a new world,

new world order,

brotherhood of man,

getting rid of the bad parts
of the old aristocratic world,

which of course he still lived.

But when Napoleon became a
dictator and crowned himself,

he was horrified.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- This is the famous score
of the Eroica symphony,

in which Beethoven
furiously scratched out.

You can see the hole in the paper,

the word 'Bonaparte,"

to whom the symphony was
originally dedicated.

And when Napoleon
proclaimed himself emperor,

Beethoven decided he would
have no more to do with him.

- [Juliet] On its premiere in 1805,

he'd renamed it, Eroica,
The Heroic Symphony.

(energetic orchestral music)

(audience applauding)

- If somebody mentioned
Napoleon, he would say, well,

he may be the ruler of the world,

but mine is the empire of the mind.

This is one of the most
important developments

in the history of music, in a sense,

the ascent of instrumental
music to this peak

of artistic expression,

and Beethoven, is both caught up

in that changing view

of instrumental music,
and is also I think,

largely part of the cause of it.

It was very much his orchestral music,

the music that really changed the way

that people thought
about instrumental music,

and what it was saying,

and the kind of access
that it could give us

to the transcendental to the infinite.

- [Juliet] Age 33,
Beethoven was established

as Vienna's foremost composer and pianist,

but he continued to experiment.

- You can see he's doing things

that he was particularly good at, I think.

He was very good at
obviously repeated notes,

things like this.

He was good at that,

because there's a lot
of that in his music.

He was good at things like

at the end of this piece,

nobody had ever written stuff like this.

This is, well actually

I can't really play it quite honestly,

but if you put the pedal down,

get a nice piano, hope for the best,

it makes an amazing effect.

And the idea of playing these octaves,

with that rapidity,

and just gliding down the piano,

is something that Beethoven
invented, actually,

probably for two reasons.

One, because he could do it,

and two, to annoy everybody
else who couldn't.

I do know that he was very instrumental

in the piano becoming a
bigger, more powerful,

and more flexible instrument,

'cause he was always writing

to the piano makers

to make pianos bigger, stronger, louder.

(dark piano music)

- [Juliet] By 1804, Beethoven
was comfortable enough

to move to a new apartment
on the edge of the city.

Here, he would write three
symphonies, an opera,

a violin concerto, string quartets,

and put the finishing touches

to a triple concerto for
piano, violin, and cello.

- Beethoven was an
incredibly difficult tenant.

He had no idea about keeping a place tidy,

lived in chaos.

He loved the views, there's a great view

looking at the Vienna woods
from the window over there,

but on this side, there's no windows.

And so I have a quotation
here from Ferdinand Ries.

"His main room was the
last one on the far wall.

The adjoining house was only

two stories high at that time,

so that if there were
a window on that wall,

Beethoven thought,

the room would be a corner room

with a clear view."

So, you can just picture the whole scene

of Beethoven secretly
gets a stonemason in,

starts chiseling a hole in the wall.

Herr (muffled), the landlord,

runs up the stairs,

confrontation, Beethoven can't understand

what the problem is about,
threatens to move out.

(uptempo instrumental music)

Beethoven had a habit, when composing,

of beating in time with
a stick on the floor.

You can imagine, the apartment
below was being rented.

And for instance,

composing, sitting at the piano,

gets very hot one day,

one evening,

takes a bucket of water,
pours it over his head.

Of course, the water runs
down into the apartment below,

which is being rented.

Poor Herr (muffled), the landlord,

then comes running up the stairs again,

another confrontation.

So this is what you had to put up with

Beethoven as a tenant.

- [Juliet] Beethoven's love
life had heated up too,

this time with a young widow.

- [Ludwig] For a long period my deafness

has made me despair of ever
achieving any happiness

during my life on this earth.

But now, things are no longer so bad.

Oh, beloved Josephine.

It is no desire for the other
sex that draws me to you,

know it is just you,

your whole self with all
your individual qualities.

You have conquered me.

I love you as dearly
as you do not love me.

You were so very sad
yesterday, dear Josephine.

Am I really unable to influence you?

Although you have so
great an influence on me,

and make me so happy.

To the publishers, Breitkopf
and Härtel Leipzig.

Sirs, the fee for my work is much lower

than what I usually accept.

Send me back the manuscripts.

I cannot and will not accept a lower fee.

Dear mayor,

the copyist should immediately ink over

what I have entered in red pencil.

I can not come myself,

as I've been suffering from my
usual complaint, colic pains.

- [Juliet] While Beethoven was struggling

with these personal and
professional affairs,

he wrestled with the
ultimate creative challenge,

music, words, and drama together, opera.

In 1803, he was given a
story by Emanuel Schikaneder,

at the Theatre an der Wien,

who had commissioned Mozart's Magic Flute.

The tale of an imprisoned man

rescued from darkness by a loyal wife,

and of love and liberty in general,

naturally appealed to Beethoven.

By 1805, the opera was ready.

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- In Beethoven, especially at Pizzaro,

you find difficulties,

because here Beethoven makes you sing,

I call it (foreign words),

because the character, this evil nature

who enters on scene,

he doesn't sing lines or arias.

It is a pure emotional eruption.

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

- He was incredibly
positive on some level.

He was someone who believed in hope.

He writes actually
unbelievably hopeful music,

maybe in his music, at least,

this is not biographical at all,

in his music was maybe less concerned

with human beings

in the flesh,

and more concerned with
humanity as an idea.

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

- The idea that love is
greater than injustice,

than tyranny, this is
so deeply felt by him.

The conception of love

that we in our time,

that who are bombarded
by trash, by video clips,

by YouTube, everybody
can put his trash in it.

There is, it is so awful what our times,

our informal times,

where we all can do whatever we like,

where there is no radio any longer.

Go into modern art
museums, you'll see trash.

There, a book next to
it, and they explain it.

You don't see trash, it is holy art.

And this is all so little, and so,

in comparison to the greatness of this

feelings of the pureness of the feelings

that Beethoven composed there,

that I think it is unique,

but it's because he felt it.

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- He spent a year and a half writing this.

Lots of versions, lots of changes,

lots of rehearsals were needed.

It was far too difficult
for the performers.

And then just a week before
it was due to be scheduled,

at last, the French invaded Vienna,

and that meant that there was

hardly anybody in the audience.

(singing in foreign language)

- French military people in uniform.

They were the ones who could get in,

and who bought the tickets.

This hymn to liberation and freedom

was performed to an invading
and repressive army.

(triumphant orchestral music)

- [Juliet] The timing
could not have been worse.

After three shows, the opera closed.

But Beethoven was discontented with it,

and continued to rework
Fidelio for a decade.

He never managed to
complete another opera.

But from adversity, creativity,

the hallmark of a great artist.

(soft orchestral music)

- With the fourth symphony,

we return to a much simpler world,

but he begins with a wonderful joke.

He starts very, with a very
slow, dark, minor movement,

as if it's going to be
another brooding piece,

like the Eroica.

- Suddenly when it comes, the Allegro,

is just like to open
a bottle of champagne.

(bright, uptempo orchestral music)

- The symphony number four explodes

from this darkness.

And then you have a perfect example of

an easy joy, desire of joy.

(uptempo orchestral music)

- The orchestra burst into laughter,

as if it's laughing at us

for taking all that so seriously.

This humor in Beethoven
is terribly important.

- [Ludwig] My dear friend,
thank you for the wine.

Whenever I and my friends drink it,

we toast your health as we get drunk.

Oh, have you heard about fat Schuppanzigh?

He's got married to
someone as fat as he is.

Can you picture what their
offspring will be like?

- I tend to think of this piece

as being an amazing love story,

and little question mark, insecurity,

that you experience
performing this piece as well.

I think it's part of the idea,

part of the character of this concerto.

Can see that this is not somebody

having a comfortable life.

This is somebody that
is in constant struggle.

I see somebody,

very profound,

somebody very unlucky,

but somebody who has so much love to give.

(speaking in foreign language)

- There were so many compositions

pouring out of him in different mediums.

It's almost as if life is becoming

so impossible for him

that his life is becoming
that of a composer.

I mean, that's where he does his living.

He was actually able to,

not only compose wonderful
new pieces as a deaf man,

but introduced completely new styles,

and sonorities, purely
through his aural imagination.

But even before people
knew he was going deaf,

they considered the Rasumovsky
Quartet to be quite mad.

- Beethoven's growing deafness,

and his awareness of his growing deafness,

caused him to react

differently to the world around him.

It would have affected
his social interaction.

It would have prevented him

from pursuing all of the
kinds of social contacts

that he wanted to,

or in the ways that he wanted to.

It would have affected
his perception of himself,

to think that as a
composer, as a musician,

he had the one affliction
that people would be,

most shocked to learn.

I think that Beethoven
really would have had to

come to grips with his own
self image, to some extent.

And that's why in a sense that it is

extraordinarily heroic, for
all the talk about suicide,

which of course is I think genuine.

It is a heroic act to come to grips with

a disability that is profoundly tied up

with one's self image,

and the image of the world of Beethoven.

- The full range of emotions

must be allowed to go on in his mind.

And if he goes a bit towards the extremes,

in his handling of other people,

I think that for great
geniuses like Beethoven,

I think that is forgiven.

What kind of person

one might've met if one had had

the good or bad fortune to meet Beethoven.

It might've been pretty scary.

What was it?

Somebody said when Rossini met Beethoven,

the butterfly met the lion.

I think one might've felt
a bit like a butterfly

in Beethoven's presence.

The caricature of Beethoven,
wild hair everywhere,

it implies a lack of control and a lack of

serious organized thought,

and that is the antithesis of Beethoven.

He was absolutely all about
serious organized thought,

no lack of control at all.

Yes he is, if you like,

full of apparently uncontrolled
temperament, and anger,

but there is also the opposite,

the immensely sensitive and kind

and generous, warmhearted,

and also deeply vulnerable man,

which will never appear in a caricature.

He's the whole range.

Fundamentally it is positive

he's not misanthropic or malevolent,

he's wanting always to communicate

beauty and warmth and love and hope.

(sentimental cello music)

- [Ludwig] September 20th, 1807.

Dear beloved and only Josephine,

may heaven grant me one
undisturbed hour to spend with you.

I do not care to put up

with the refusals of
your servant any longer.

Is it really a fact that you
do not want to see me anymore?

If so, do be frank.

- [Juliet] Beethoven spent the year 1808

hard at work preparing
for an epic concert,

a four hour extravaganza, all Beethoven.

- If there is one snowing night in Vienna,

where I could go to a concert,

this would be absolutely
this famous concert,

when Beethoven wanted absolutely to show

to Vienna how great he was.

- I think that he saw
this as an opportunity,

at the age of 38,

to finally make his mark
on Viennese musical life.

And perhaps even finally to

overcome what he must have seen

as his primary competitors
in the music field,

which was surprisingly Haydn, Mozart.

But if you read contemporary
music journalism,

there's constant talk of
our three great composers,

our three great German composers,

Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven,

all in the present tense,

as if the fact that Haydn
was too old and feeble

to compose didn't count anymore.

Or the fact that Mozart was
dead didn't count anymore.

And I think Beethoven had
this chip on his shoulder.

I think he'd always had
a chip on her shoulder,

especially with respect to Mozart,

and he saw then the concert of 1808

as an opportunity to

defeat his rivals.

- [Juliet] The theater was
full, a maelstrom of noise,

as the audience hurried in from the snow.

Beethoven deliberately started

with his quietest opening movement yet.

(light orchestral music)

- You have a piece like
the Pastoral Symphony,

which in its own serious way,

exploits these mimetic gestures

that are supposed to evoke nature.

So you have the opening movement,

the pastoral movement,

you have a slow movement.

The scene by the brook.

You have a storm.

It's really a tremendous
amount of variety.

Beethoven is saying, I'm
more serious, I'm better.

In every respect,

it's calculated to be
an overwhelming event.

(audience applauding)

- [Juliet] After the sixth symphony,

Beethoven sat at the piano,
and performed a new concerto.

(dramatic piano music)

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Here for the very first time
in the keyboard literature,

we have a piece in which the piano

actually begins the entire piece.

The thematic material

is stated by the piano at the beginning,

and you have this amazing.

The first theme, which is
presented by the piano alone.

I mean, nothing this remarkable,

nothing with this sense of
revolution and volatility

has ever been heard by a Viennese audience

in the beginning of the 19th century,

let alone the 18th century.

That the piano can present such a

strangely amorphous theme,

and then be answered by
the orchestra in B major,

is absolutely,

I mean, the degree to
which that is shocking

is just immeasurable by
our 21st century standards.

I mean, if I play a cadence

which ends on the dominant of G major,

and then the orchestra
answers me in B major,

this kind of harmonic
palette, tonal palate,

use of keys, modulations,

completely unheard of

even by Beethoven's standard, I think.

- I don't think that Beethoven
wanted to show the world

that he was a better composer.

I think what he did want to show the world

was that there were a
lot of these charlatan,

charlatan composers,

who were making a huge living,

and had enormous success

with writing absolute, terrible music,

and Beethoven couldn't stand that.

And I think that was something

where he wanted to prove to the world

that he was on a much higher level

and a far better composer, better pianist.

(bright orchestral music)

There is a lot of wildness,

there is a lot of almost aggression.

There is a lot of abundance,

so I wouldn't be surprised
if you look at his father,

did they sometimes say that his father

used to drink too much?

And it was quite wild and
aggressive, could be quite nasty.

I'm sure there must've
been something true of it.

And it's probably ended
up in Beethoven as well.

I mean, it runs in the family.

I think Beethoven probably

had more of his father inside him,

then he would have liked,

but that's probably what gave his music

such enormous strength and power.

I don't think, to be a good composer

you shouldn't be completely normal.

- What is amazing about
the works of Beethoven,

is how much he's always
constantly sort of, you know,

digging at the material,

and in the material too,
to reach, to reach deeper.

And I feel often for
Beethoven, deeper means,

at the end of the day, higher.

- The fourth concerto is one of those

heartbreaking pieces in
the sense that we know

that it's the last concerto
that Beethoven played in public.

The effect that that disappointment

had on Beethoven's career, his confidence,

his ideas of his self worth,

I think must have been massive.

The idea of Beethoven, the pianist,

suddenly became questionable,

became fraught with problems,

because of his deafness

and his frustration with the keyboards.

His frustration at being
able to play the keyboards.

So the fourth concerto

is sort of that last glimpse

of Beethoven's brilliance and virtuosity,

and revolutionary character
as a pianist and composer.

The fourth concerto was considered

immensely difficult by
contemporary standards,

at the beginning of the 19th century.

It was one of those pieces I think

that was absolutely tailor-made

for Beethoven's pianistic abilities.

(audience applauding)

To put oneself in the shoes
of a person like that,

who was really at the forefront
of Viennese musical life

as a virtuoso keyboard player,

to suddenly be faced with the sort of

end of an entire chapter in his life,

as a keyboard virtuoso, must
have been a major, major blow.

- [Juliet] No one guessed
he would never perform

a piano concerto in public again.

After an intermission,

the audience heard what would become

the most famous notes of all time.

- The opening of
Beethoven's fifth symphony

is like to give a uppercut to the people,

to the audience is just to.

- Beethoven would start
with a da-da-da-daaa.

We can invert that.

We can repeat it.

("Beethoven's Fifth Symphony")

Mozart could a write
symphony in four days.

Beethoven could do that too.

He could write very, very fast,

but sometimes he wanted to work and work

and make something grander,

and he was thinking more of the future.

Mozart was writing for Saturday,

and Beethoven was beginning to
write for eternity, you know,

that was one of the conversations
he had with his creator.

He wanted to be as it were,
a great composer, I think.

- I mean, if we look at
the fifth symphony here,

when he's worked himself up into a frenzy,

he was writing a fortissimo passage,

and you can get notes
flying all over the page,

and you see tremendous
displays of temperament,

and also in the crossings out,

in great swishes of
pen all over the place.

- To the composing process in Beethoven,

he's more similar to the work in progress

of a sculpture, like Michelangelo.

So you already have a complex idea

of what the statue will be,

but you have to work a lot

to take all the extra marble

or the extra element just to live

the pure artistic product.

- In the fifth symphony,

when you get to the end of the (mumbling)

and everything seems to fizzling out,

and then it builds up instead,

and you see what is going to happen now?

You have been sitting that
for nearly half an hour,

and it all builds up and quite suddenly,

everything thunders!

- [Juliet] Beethoven
had thrown all the dice.

But four hours of unfamiliar music

in a freezing cold theater

was too much for his audience.

- It was not a success in the sense that

people probably wanted to go home.

But I think it was a success

in that the very fact that
Beethoven could pull it off.

Kind of doing it is more important

than having it be a success.

And it is, as I say,

simply so monumental that
you've got to admire the man

for, you know, undertaking it.

- [Juliet] One admirer, Napoleon's
youngest brother, Jerome,

offered Beethoven a permanent post

in the German town of Cassel.

Beethoven accepted the offer

to the shock of Vienna's nobles.

Three of them, Prince
Lopkowitz, a patron of the arts,

Prince Kinsky, also a great patron,

and the Archduke Rudolf,
brother of the emperor,

and a pupil of Beethoven's,

changed his mind by offering
him a healthy salary,

just to stay in Vienna.

(soft orchestral music)

- His music is so firmly
rooted in everything human,

with all of its frailties and weaknesses

and shortcomings of all sorts.

But at the same time,

there's an element of Promethean struggle

and of attempt to always

reach higher and to never
give up and never surrender,

something that always
tries to elevate itself

from the difficulties or the misery

inherent to the human condition.

That's also what's so fascinating to me

is that he's perceived often
as a misanthropic character,

but his music is also the music
of an inveterate optimist,

of someone who never
gives up in thinking that,

you know, men can be better.

- [Juliet] Events made it
hard to be an optimist.

The French were back,
and unlike last time,

Vienna opted to defend itself.

(explosions)

But a short siege brought
the city to its knees,

followed by months of occupation.

(guns firing)

- [Barry] During the
bombardments of Vienna,

Beethoven is said to have
hidden in his brother's cellar,

covered his ears with a pillow
to protect his weak hearing.

It was a terrible time for him.

There is lots of cannons and gunfire

and shortage of everything,
and can't buy things,

can't buy boots.

The whole life is completely
disrupted by the French.

- [Ludwig] What a
destructive, disorderly life

I see in here around me,

nothing but drums, cannons,

and human misery in every form.

I had begun to have a little singing party

at my rooms every week,
but the accursed war

has put a stop to everything.

- All the new nobility left Vienna

for the countryside,

where they were out of harm's way.

In particular, his close
friend Archduke Rudolf

left in May, 1809,

and Beethoven wrote a very
heartfelt personal piano piece

for Archduke Rudolf just
before his departure,

"Lebewohl", Farewell.

- The invasion of the French
must have been a mighty blow.

Beethoven had profoundly felt

and held ideas about equality,

brotherhood, the way a society,

a free society,

should work, and that he
encouraged people to think that way

through his music.

(soft orchestral music)

- [Ludwig] Vienna, January 2nd, 1810.

Hardly had I recovered, when
my illness sent me back to bed.

Is it any wonder?

We no longer have even
decent bread to eat.

Vienna, February 4th, 1810.

We are being supplied with bad food

for which we have to pay
incredibly high prices.

Vienna, May, 1810.

I should be happy if that thing
had not settled in my ears.

If I had not read that a
man should not voluntarily

quit this life so long as he
can still perform a good deed,

I would have left this earth
long ago, by my own hand.

- [Juliet] One moment
contemplating suicide,

the next, asking his assistant to help him

smarten up with a new shirt and neckties.

Beethoven, approaching 40,

was hoping to woo another
teenager to be his bride,

Therese Malfatti.

It seems he even wrote
her a small piano piece,

later mistakenly called, Für Elise.

- It's funny to see how
famous and well-known

a small piano piece like
Für Elise has become

over the years.

It's certainly not
Beethoven's best piano work,

but I think it's probably
one of the few works

which actually

does what it was supposed to do.

I mean, it wasn't supposed
to be played in concert.

It was supposed to be
played by people at home,

and enjoyed by people who are playing it.

This is typically a piece which

is much more fun to
play than to listen to.

So if you've heard it two
or three times, I mean it,

it starts getting a little bit irritating.

- [Ludwig] Dear friend,

every day, there are fresh
inquiries from foreigners,

new acquaintances, new circumstances.

But my master, Archduke Rudolf,

makes the same demand and
wants me to be with him.

Your Imperial Highness,

I see that you want to have
the effects of my music,

tried on the horses as well.

For that favor, I shall
remain as long as I live,

your most willing servant.

The music will be brought to
you at the fastest gallop.

- There's a famous occasion in 1812,

when he briefly met Goethe,
the great German writer,

one of the towering cultural figures

of early German romanticism,

and they are going for a walk

at the Teplitz, the spa,

and the Imperial party comes along,

and Goethe as a properly
brought up, enlightenment,

18th century man, stands aside

and lets the party pass
and takes off his hat.

Beethoven strides straight
through the middle

as if indifferent to this.

Beethoven had this sort of pride.

- [Juliet] In Teplitz,
Beethoven also wrote,

but never sent, letters to
yet another love of his life.

Not a teenager this time,

but evidence would suggest

a married mother called, Antonie Brentano.

- Beethoven was intensely human

in the sense that he may have said

that, you know, he disapproves of

an extra marital affair,

or anyone who would engage
or try to, foster one.

And yet he himself did
because he fell in love.

- [Ludwig] Teplitz, July 6th, 1812.

My angel, my all,

Only a few words today.

Be cheerful and be forever my faithful,

my only sweetheart, to
my all as I am yours.

However much you love me,

my love for you is even greater.

July 7th, 1812.

Even when I am in bed
my thoughts rush to you,

my immortal beloved,
now, and then joyfully,

then again, sadly,

waiting to know whether
fate will hear our prayer.

No other woman can ever possess my heart.

Never, never, oh God,

why must one be separated
from her who is so dear?

Your love has made me both the happiest

and the unhappiest of mortals.

- [Juliet] Beethoven's cash
ran as short as his luck.

War had crushed the Austrian currency,

and his salary plummeted.

But good luck followed bad.

In 1813, the British General Wellington

defeated the French in Spain.

Beethoven accepted a lucrative commission

to write a patriotic symphony.

(anthemic orchestral music)

The war with France was finally over,

and a Congress convened in
Vienna to divide the spoils.

The victors held endless balls,

and turned to Vienna's greatest composer

to entertain them with two new symphonies,

his seventh and eighth.

(rousing orchestral music)

While Europe rejoiced,
Beethoven despaired,

his hearing had all but gone.

On the 25th of January, 1815,

at a concert for the Empress of Russia,

he sat at the piano to accompany a singer

in one of his early compositions.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Juliet] It was his last known

public appearance as a pianist.

(sentimental instrumental music)

Beethoven's relationship
with his younger brothers,

both of whom had moved to
Vienna, had never been easy.

Then in November, 1815, his
brother Kaspar Karl died.

Beethoven, who'd always looked
down on his brother's wife,

sought custody of his nephew, Karl.

For four years they fought
bitterly over the young child.

- [Ludwig] Vienna, February 6th, 1816.

I have fought a battle for the purpose

of wrestling a poor unhappy child

from the clutches of his unworthy mother.

Last night, that queen of the night

was at the artist's ball until 3:00 a.m.,

exposing not only her mental,
but also her bodily nakedness.

It was whispered that she was willing

to hire herself for 20 gulden.

I have to support my
little nephew entirely.

Until now he has been
at a boarding school,

that costs up to 1,100 gulden.

I have had bad luck again,
with another servant.

He gets drunk, stays out of
the house for nights on end,

and is shockingly rude.

My hearing has become worse.

I have never been able to look
after myself and my needs.

I am even less able to do so now.

- In the late 18-teens,

Beethoven was somewhat more
erratic in his behavior.

He was less conscientious
about his hygiene.

He was

less controlled, let's say,
when dealing with other people.

More likely to ignore etiquette

and proper social behavior.

He didn't compose as much.

And I suspect that there were

a number of reasons for this,

one would have been his
increasing deafness,

another would have been his
increasingly bad health.

And the third would have been

his increasingly difficult
family situation,

especially with respect
to his nephew Karl.

- [Juliet] These were terrible years,

but not entirely without composition.

- It's one of the sonatas that
is perhaps the least known,

the least liked.

It's quite a demanding piece,

also for the listener, in fact.

They have to really,

they can't expect to
just sit there passively,

and for something to grab them,

as maybe the case with Appassionata,

or Tempest, or so many other sonatas,

which have possibly more
direct impact on the listener.

This is very, very complex.

- [Ludwig] I used to be able to make

all my other circumstances
subservient to my art.

I admit however, that by
doing so I became a bit crazy.

My servant has been quite different

since I threw those books at her head.

I still have to find a new housekeeper.

She must be a good cook,

and ought to be able to turn
her hand to mending shirts.

The new kitchen maid
made a really rye face

about carrying wood.

I trust that she will remember

that even our Redeemer had to
drag his cross to Golgotha.

I am not at all well,

and for some time now I have
again had to take medicine.

Hence I can scarcely devote
myself for a few hours a day

to heaven's most precious
gift to me, that is my art.

October 27th, 1819.

I am to be recognized forthwith
as Karl's sole guardian.

Moreover, the mother is to be forbidden

to associate with her son.

August 5th, 1820.

I cherish the hope of being able perhaps

to set foot next year on my native soil,

and to visit my parents' graves.

(somber piano music)

(singing in foreign language)

- [Juliet] Beethoven's hearing got worse.

Custom-built ear horns got bigger.

Pianos were made louder.

At 49, he was completely deaf.

Friends could communicate only by writing.

- He becomes more and more reclusive,

cut off from the world by
his increasing deafness,

and by his bitterness over the failure

of his affairs with women.

And in general, a darkening
view of the world.

He obviously became very,
very disorganized and shabby.

On one occasion, late in his life,

he was even arrested

because the Viennese police
thought he was a tramp,

and took a lot of persuading

that he was in fact, the great Beethoven.

Apparently there were
occasions when his friends

would actually

swap clothes that he'd
discarded while he was sleeping,

and put new clothes in their place,

which he then put on the next
day, without even noticing.

- If you were in luck,

you'd catch him in a very
generous and expansive mood.

After all we know he liked
his wine, he liked company.

He loved being at the
tavern, drinking and eating,

and he may have even made
a note to himself once

in his diary saying,

I really must make sure that every day

I seek the company of a musician

in order to find out more
about how the violin works,

how the oboe works,

how the trombone works,
and that way, in company,

to learn more about the instruments,

and about art and about life.

He was not only humble in that respect,

but he was warmhearted

and wanted to have contact with people.

Therefore, if you rang his doorbell,

of course he was immensely temperamental,

you might catch him at the wrong time

and get a bucket of water in your face.

But also, he might say,
come in my dear fellow.

Yes, of course I invent
these words, this is clear,

but one gets all the impressions

from all surviving documents,

one of which is a most amazing document

that came to light in Cornwall
of all places in 1999.

And this was a hitherto
unpublished, unknown,

totally unknown manuscript
of a string quartet movement,

which is if I recall
rightly about 26 bars.

It lasts under a minute,

but is a beautifully crafted work,

in an unusual key, B
minor, which it turned out,

he composed on the spot
for an English visitor

who called on him in Vienna in 1819.

I mean this is extraordinary.

- Another thing we have
to bear in mind I think

is the contrast between the outward chaos

of his daily life, and
the extraordinary control

that he was able to exert
over the details of his music.

There's every truths in
the kind of romantic image

of Beethoven as a composer

who expresses all sorts
of emotions in his music.

But he's also in my view,

an incredibly cerebral composer as well.

The musical structures that he creates

are extraordinarily complex.

He's able to express or
to exert, in his music,

the kind of control over detail

that clearly escaped him
in daily life, altogether.

- [Juliet] Beethoven began composing

what would be the last
of his piano sonatas,

Opus Works 110 and 111.

- You can see sometimes
very obsessive elements

in the way he writes.

For instance, in the lamenting song,

the (muffled) that goes on in Opus 110,

when, when you have it for
the second time in G minor.

There's such specific
indications that he writes.

Even in those bars there
are so many examples

of this obsession with detail.

He writes that it has to sound exhausted.

It's like you're, you're
completely spent of energy,

and the feeling of trying
to catch your breath.

And the way he actually manages

to convey that in his notation is amazing.

Here, you have these very short phrases,

which in some sense, could
have been a longer line.

He could have written it like this.

So you just feel the
continuity of that line.

But instead it's as if

we don't even,

we shouldn't even have
enough breath in our lungs

to carry through these
relatively short phrases.

So that feeling of exhaustion
has to come across.

It's very difficult to do.

- In many of the late pieces,

it's like he is becoming
more and more aware

of the acoustic phenomena,

and which is quite remarkable for somebody

who at this stage was totally deaf.

There's a place in the Opus
110 Sonata, for example,

which is just, it's just repeating,

just this note again and again.

He's repeating this note in the treble

again and again and
again, listening to it.

- There's one part of the variation

that's just in the lower bit of the piano,

and one that's in the
highest bit up there,

and this abyss in between,
that's remaining untouched.

The little thing on the side,

we don't know if you really meant it,

but what happened here in the left hand,

is basically the theme of the Ode to Joy,

which he was hiding in there,
if he really meant that.

It is the same time that
he wrote this sonata.

This piece symbolizes eternity.

- [Ludwig] While I was dozing,

I dreamt that I was traveling

to very distant parts of
the world, even to Syria,

and in fact to India and back again,

and even to Arabia,

and in the end,

even go to as far as Jerusalem.

However deterring this fame
may seem on the surface,

the artist is not allowed

to be Jupiter's guest
in Olympus every day.

Vulgar humanity too often drags him down

against his will from those
pure ethereal heights.

- [Juliet] After more than
four years in the writing,

and almost as much effort

in trying to sell it to
Europe's royal families,

Beethoven revealed his
proudest achievement,

his mass, the Missa Solemnis.

- [Ludwig] My chief aim when
I was composing this mass,

was to awaken and permanently instill

religious feeling into the listeners.

(dramatic choral music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- He was very devoted to God,

and there are lots of little prayers

in his private writings.

And it slips out in a little
court case with his nephew.

His nephew's asked,

does Beethoven ever pray with you?

He says, yes, he prays
with me twice a day to God.

And we would never know this

if it just hadn't slipped
out in the court case,

that every day, twice a day,

Beethoven was praying to God.

(dramatic choral music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Ludwig] My income
is practically nothing.

My poor health has not allowed me

to undertake professional tours,

or avail myself of all the means

by which a livelihood is made.

- [Juliet] While writing
the Missa Solemnis,

Beethoven received an offer from London.

- [Ludwig] I am delighted
to accept this offer

to write a new symphony for
the Philharmonic Society.

If God would only restore my health,

and I could comply with all of the offers

from throughout Europe
and even of North America.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- When he gets this block.

There is an urgency, an
anxiety, in this symphony,

this anxious energy.

- It begins in despair.

He says, this is our despair,
he writes in the margin

of the sketch for the Ninth Symphony.

And the second movement is no better,

it's also terrifying.

The hounds of hell are at your heels.

The third movement is an image

of something quite different,
of love and beauty.

- When I conduct this movement,

I always imagine Beethoven, 53 years old,

probably not so energetic
or not so powerful,

from some iconography,

we now know Beethoven was not a big man,

was not tall,

was pretty small man.

It probably was not with this kind of

posture, to be grand,

was a bit more intimate more,

more fragile,

more weak, and just saying that, okay,

I wrote the most sincere

confession about

the love of the life

he could write in music.

- And you wonder how he's going to

bring these things together,

and he finally does it

in the last movement with a simple tune,

which he spent weeks polishing

to make it simpler and
simpler and simpler,

which is now the anthem
of the European Union.

He brings hope and
salvation to the despair

of the first movement.

("Ode to Joy")

- I think one of the points
of the Ninth Symphony

is its monumentality,

plain and simple.

I don't think there had ever
been a symphony certainly

so massive, as the Ninth,
and for that reason alone,

it makes a profound impression.

(dramatic orchestral music)

(singing in foreign language)

- Very soon after that wonderful outburst,

everything stops and-

(singing in foreign language)

Now what is all this about?

(singing in foreign language)

One sort of disjointed
line with no harmony,

just after a massively joyous outburst.

And this can only be puzzling,

and detract from the immediacy

of the entire work's ability
to communicate immediately

with people who don't
know Beethoven at all.

So the Ninth Symphony has
got wonderful moments,

and some of the most universal
moments in all Beethoven,

but as a piece it is,

I hate to say flawed,

because it's one of the most iconic,

perhaps the most iconic piece
of classical music there is.

But I think it is flawed.

It is perhaps inevitable it's flawed,

because it's so original and
that's why it's so great.

(singing in foreign language)

- If the end of the Ninth Symphony

is just, oh, happy end,
we are all brothers,

we love each other.

I don't feel that in this music,

from the very

whisper in the shadow,

to this scream at the ends of
everybody, all the musicians,

all the singers,

sharing, not this joy,

but this experience of joy,

this dream of joy

this, if only it could be like that.

(singing in foreign language)

(audience applauding)

- [Juliet] As the symphony ended,

Beethoven, standing near the wings,

was turned to face the
audience, and was amazed.

After five ovations,

two more than the emperor
traditionally received,

the police stepped in
to silence the crowd.

(mournful violin music)

- [Ludwig] Baden, May, 1825.

Dear Doctor Braunhofer, I
spit a good deal of blood.

I have frequent nose bleedings.

My stomach has become dreadfully weak.

(mournful string music)

Dear Karl, to be constantly
alone makes me only weaker.

In any case, Death with his scythe

will not spare me much longer.

Before my departure
for the Elysian Fields,

I must leave behind me
what the eternal spirit

has infused into my soul,
and bids me complete.

After all only art and science

gives us hopes of a higher life.

- His deafness at this stage,

perhaps even helped him creatively,

loosened all possible

barriers of convention,

practicability, accessibility,

so that he could

just follow his imagination
wherever it took him.

(dramatic string music)

- The idea of these men was just

beyond the possibilities,

considered the possible at that time.

So is the imagination of Beethoven?

Probably, because he was deaf.

So he was disconnected in
a way, from the reality.

Maybe he went much more
deeply inside himself.

He tried to listen very
carefully to his inner,

inner hearing,

just to listen

the very specific deep voice,

that was singing inside himself.

- I think the late quartets

are amongst the most

extraordinary creations of mankind.

There's something in the emotion

that's just completely changed.

And I, I don't know, I just
have this personal feeling

that there's some form
of acceptance of life,

and just celebrating all aspects of life,

including its pain, and
including its suffering,

so that he was somehow able
to accept that suffering

as simply a part of life.

- [Juliet] But that suffering intensified.

In August, 1826,

Karl, endlessly bullied by Beethoven,

tried to kill himself.

Such horror took its toll.

- [Ludwig] Vienna, March 6th, 1827.

I cannot foresee the end
of my dreadful illness.

On the contrary,

my sufferings and my
anxieties have only increased.

What am I to live on

until I have recovered my lost strength,

and can again, earn my
living by means of my pen?

Vienna, March 10th, 1827.

My health, which will not be restored

for a very long time,

demands that you should send
me the wines I asked for.

They will certainly bring the refreshment,

invigoration, and good health.

(energetic string music)

- [Juliet] Forever the optimist,

and planning new works,
including a 10th symphony,

but Beethoven's body

had simply had enough.

On the 26th of March, 1827, age 56,

Beethoven died.

Thousands turned out to
pay their last respects.

- His repeated attempts to monumentalize,

his repeated attempts to, you know, outdo,

all of his contemporaries,

were clearly eminently successful.

And so he became an intimidating figure.

And in that sense,

one part of Beethoven's legacy

is to push people away from him,

to push people in
directions where they say,

I can't do what Beethoven did,

I'm not even going to try.

That's the essential
difference then, in a way,

between Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart.

Beethoven could say,

I'm gonna do what Haydn and
Mozart did, and just as well,

but people in Beethoven's time,

didn't feel that they could compete.

So that pushes kind of the creative act

or the compositional
act for many composers,

away from the Beethovenian model.

The uniqueness of Beethoven,

and the attempt of composers,

writers, critics, listeners,

afterwards to come to
grips with this uniqueness,

inevitably gave rise to a
reevaluation of the past,

the present and future.

(celebratory orchestral music)

(audience applauding)