BBC History Magazine

A troubled life

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We usually approach Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827, seen below in a 19th-century portrait) through his extraordin­ary music. But that’s not the approach of a new BBC Four series, part of the corporatio­n’s Beethoven Unleashed season to celebrate the 250th anniversar­y of his birth. Instead, Beethoven’s often FKʛEWNV NKHG VCMGU EGPVTG UVCgG 6JG TUV QH VJTGG GRKUQFGU charts Beethoven’s childhood in 18th-century Bonn, when his demanding, occasional­ly violent father pushed his son to success, initially as a piano virtuoso. The second programme contrasts the creativity that gave the world the Eroica symphony with a life beset by health issues, notably Beethoven’s growing deafness, and a need for love CPF EQORCPKQPU­JKR 6JG PCN instalment deals with BeethovGP’U PCN [GCTU YJKEJ KPENWFed a bitter custody battle over his nephew.

Throughout the series,

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