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Donald Macleod explores Beethoven life during the year 1812, when misfortune and misery relentlessly piled up on the composer.

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven life during the year 1812, when heartbreak was followed by a relentless piling up of other misfortunes and misery for the composer. It was also the year when Beethoven met one of the other towering figures of the age - Goethe.

This week, Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven’s life through the years of 1810-1812. This was a period of great financial hardship for all of Vienna in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second occupation of the city. Beethoven struggled through this economic depression, composing his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies with little hope of getting performances. The financial crisis wasn’t the only thing to afflict the composer either, alongside an increase in physical ailments, Beethoven also suffered a great emotional crisis which culminated in the letter he wrote to his unnamed ‘Immortal Beloved’.

Composer of the Week is returning to the story of Beethoven’s life and music throughout 2020. Part of Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed season marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Kennst du das Land, Op 75 No 1
Ann Murray, mezzo soprano
Iain Burnside, piano

Violin Sonata No 10 in G major, Op 96
Jennifer Pike, violin
Tom Blach, piano

Meeresstille und Gluckliche Fahrt, Op 112
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Symphony No 8 in F major, Op 93 (4th movement)
´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox, conductor

Freudvoll und Leidvoll (Incidental Music for Egmont, Op 84)
Gundula Janowitz, soprano
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Producer: Sam Phillips

57 minutes

Last on

Fri 14 Aug 2020 13:00

Music Played

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Kennst du das Land, Op 75 No 1

    Performer: Iain Burnside. Singer: Ann Murray.
    • Signum SIGCD139.
    • Signum.
    • 6.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Violin Sonata in G major, Op 96

    Performer: Jennifer Pike. Performer: Tom Blach.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Meeresstille und gluckliche Fahrt, Op 112

    Orchestra: Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Choir: Monteverdi Choir.
    • ARCHIV : 435 391-2-.
    • ARCHIV.
    • 2.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No 8 in F major, Op 93 (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: ´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Richard Hickox.

Broadcast

  • Fri 14 Aug 2020 13:00

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