Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in the city of Bonn, in western Germany. There, during his first years of life, he was exposed to a demanding musical training by a father obsessed with making him “the new Mozart.”

Such questionable ambition, coupled with a no less dangerous character linked to alcoholism, directly affected the personal, academic and social life of the young Beethoven, not only making him an introverted and fearful child, but a poor student too tired to attend the lessons from school after spending the nights rehearsing before the piano.

In any case, without justifying the means that polished his talent, the reality is that with only seven years, Beethoven was already able to give piano recitals that left the audience speechless; among them, Christian Gottlob Neefe himself, who was so impressed with the ability of the little Beethoven, who was interested in guiding, enriching and perfecting his training. Thus, at age 10 he left school to devote himself entirely to music and at 16, the nobility of Bonn financed a trip to Vienna to learn from the best, among them, Mozart himself; but shortly after arriving at the music capital, his mother fell seriously ill and had to return to Bonn.

The tradition says that Beethoven had the opportunity to play the piano in a recital in which Mozart was present and left him so fascinated that he would say: «This young man will make the world speak».

After the death of his mother, his father fell into a deep depression that forced Beethoven to take charge of his younger brothers playing the viola and giving piano lessons. Luckily for him, he did not have to extend this type of work for a long time, because his extraordinary talent was becoming more known and there were several people interested in financing his complete dedication to music. He spent more than 10 years in Vienna as an economically independent musician until, after the age of 30, he began to experience serious hearing problems. Beethoven tried different procedures to cure his eminent deafness, but nothing worked. Such was his impotence, which valued suicide, but he knew that he still had a lot of music to give to the world and he continued composing until his death at age 56, leaving us a musical legacy of nine symphonies, 32 sonatas, two masses and an opera that they consecrate him as one of the best musicians of all time.