Episode Details

Beethoven began losing his hearing in his late twenties — a catastrophe for any person, an unthinkable one for a composer. He considered suicide, wrote a farewell letter he never sent, and then chose to keep composing. The music he created after going completely deaf — the late string quartets, the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis — is among the most profound art any human being has ever produced.

This episode traces Beethoven from his abusive childhood in Bonn through his conquest of Vienna, the Heiligenstadt Testament that recorded his despair, and the decades of increasing deafness during which he produced his greatest works.

• Beethoven's brutal childhood under an alcoholic father who exploited his musical talent
• His early career in Vienna and the piano virtuosity that made him a celebrity
• The Heiligenstadt Testament — the suicide letter that became a declaration of artistic defiance
• The late works composed in total deafness and why they are considered music's supreme achievement