IDAGIO | Beethoven for All - Music of Power, Passion & Beauty 00028947835141

Featuring

Daniel Barenboim
Anja Harteros
Waltraud Meier
Peter Seiffert
René Pape
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Staatskapelle Berlin
Vokalensemble Kölner Dom
Ludwig van Beethoven

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Beethoven's father, a music teacher and tenor, recognized his son's musical talent but was a fearsome man who flew into brutal rages when drunk.

Historical Context

Beethoven was a radical who thrilled to ideas of freedom and equality during the French Revolutionary Wars that were sweeping across Europe.

Composer Biography

At just eighteen, Beethoven demanded half of his father's salary from his employer to provide for his family, as his father's alcoholism worsened after his mother's death.

Composition History

In 1802, Beethoven wrote 'The Heiligenstadt Testament,' a powerful document describing how his love of music prevented him from committing suicide after realizing his deafness was hopeless.

Cultural Impact

The famous opening four notes of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 were used by the Allies during radio broadcasts in World War II to symbolize the struggle for victory.

Composer Biography

Beethoven suffered from debilitating deafness from his twenties onwards, despite his career as a piano virtuoso and conductor depending on a perfect sense of hearing.

Composition History

Beethoven's monumental final Symphony No. 9, presented three years before his death in 1824, speaks of joy and love and uses the text of a poem called 'Ode to Joy' in its final movement.