Beethoven

9 symphonies, late quartets

The hinge of Western music. He inherited Mozart's classical forms and charged them with a Promethean force that shattered every constraint. The late quartets, composed in total deafness, remain the most radical and inward music ever written — still not fully absorbed two centuries later.

Key works

• Symphony No. 91824— Ode to Joy — composed deaf
• Symphony No. 51808— Fate knocking at the door
• Late string quartets1825–1826— Music's inner frontier
• Piano Sonata No. 321822— The last sonata — arietta variations

Connections

External