Beethoven’s 250th Birthday: Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Explore the music, life and times of the composer who changed culture.
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No composer left a mark on music quite like Ludwig van Beethoven. He took the popular forms of his time — symphony, string quartet, piano sonata, opera — and stretched them to their breaking points. He embodied the then-new ideal of the musician as passionate, politically engaged Romantic hero.
In honor of the 250th anniversary of his birth — he was baptized Dec. 17, 1770, and probably born a day or two earlier — writers and critics for The New York Times have spent the year choosing their favorite recordings; delving into his life and times; traveling from the house where he was born in Bonn, Germany, to his grave in Vienna, Austria; speaking with some of his best interpreters; and exploring his vast, influential body of work. It is, if not everything you need to know about Beethoven, then a pretty good start.
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Listen to the Best of His Music
We asked some of our favorite artists which five minutes of his music they would play to make their friends fall in love with Beethoven. We created our dream cycle of his nine symphonies, picking a favorite recording of each. And our chief classical critic describes how his works are built from tiny bits of material.
5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Beethoven
Listen to the best of the stormy, tender work of the composer who changed music.
Dec. 2, 2020
The Ultimate Beethoven Symphony Collection
Nine crucial works. The best recording of each.
March 27, 2020
Beethoven’s 250th Birthday: His Greatness Is in the Details
Brahms, Wagner, even Sondheim: All have followed the great master in building their works from small bits of music.
Dec. 14, 2020
Following in His Footsteps
“The time seemed ripe for a pilgrimage in search of Beethoven, the man,” our reporter wrote early this year. We also published profiles of people who surrounded him, prodded and inspired him.
From Bonn to Vienna, in Search of Beethoven, the Man
It’s the composer’s 250th birthday, and a pilgrimage shines new light on his art and life.
Feb. 24, 2020
The Woman at the Heart of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata
A coming novel tells the story of the piano student who was the dedicatee of one of classical music’s most famous works.
May 27, 2020
The Black Violinist Who Inspired Beethoven
George Bridgetower, the original dedicatee of the “Kreutzer” Sonata, was a charismatic prodigy but faded into history.
Sept. 4, 2020
The Woman Who Built Beethoven’s Pianos
Nannette Streicher has been marginalized by history, but she was one of Europe’s finest keyboard manufacturers.
Nov. 6, 2020
The Behind-the-Scenes Assist That Made Beethoven’s Ninth Happen
Louis Antoine Duport, the Nureyev of his day, also managed the theater where the great choral symphony had its premiere.
Dec. 8, 2020
A Bold Way to Perform His Symphonies
“He was not somebody who was content to write elegant music for easy listening,” said the conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who uses rough, fresh instruments like those played in Beethoven’s time. Our critic wrote that this was “exactly what we needed in this year of Beethoven saturation.”
A Revolutionary Approach to Beethoven: Period Instruments
The conductor John Eliot Gardiner talks about a life listening to and performing the world’s most-played symphonies.
Feb. 14, 2020
This Is How to Do a Beethoven Symphony Cycle
John Eliot Gardiner’s period-instrument survey at Carnegie Hall was a reintroduction to some of the world’s most famous music.
Feb. 26, 2020
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Confronting His Piano Sonatas
Our chief critic, who took on the daunting Op. 110 Sonata in college, explores the “extraordinary achievement” of Igor Levit’s new recording of the full set, while cherishing Artur Schnabel’s classic cycle. And the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard talks about why he thinks of Beethoven as avant-garde — still.
Playing Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Changed How I Hear Them
Our chief classical critic took on the daunting Opus 110 in college, and now relishes risky recordings.
July 3, 2020
Beethoven the Avant-Gardist: A Pianist Makes His Case
Pierre-Laurent Aimard juxtaposes the master with other troublemaking composers “so that we understand better what Beethoven meant.”
April 17, 2020
A Nine-Hour Marathon: His Quartets
What is it like listening to all 17 of his works for string quartet? It gave one writer “an acute awareness of the extraordinary range of sensations Beethoven depicts. Joy. Rage. Slyness. Gravitas. Grief. Snickering. Despair. Holiness.”
17 Works, 9 Hours, 10 Days: My Beethoven Quartet Marathon
Modern living forced me to grab a movement or two at a time, while commuting, cooking dinner and putting away laundry.
Feb. 4, 2020
A Quartet Sets a New Standard for Beethoven Marathons
The Danish String Quartet presented the composer’s complete quartets over six extraordinary concerts at Alice Tully Hall.
Feb. 19, 2020
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