The German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was probably the first truly bad boy of music. He showed utter distain for discipline and authority and brusquely dismissed the conventions of aristocratic society. The formal court etiquette was particularly irksome to him,

Beethoven had started to work on his String Quartet Op. 127 in 1822, but it was not premiered until 6 March 1825. Tickets for a first hearing had actually been sold for the end of February, but the quartet wasn’t

Piano Trio in G Major, WoO 37 III. Thema andante con variazioni From BEETHOVEN, L. van: Flute Works, Vol. 2 (2018) Released by Naxos Beethoven: Piano Trio in G Major, WoO 37 – III. Thema andante con variazioniBeethoven’s mastery in

The famous “short-short-short-long” motive that initiates the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony has become the most compact and commanding gesture in all of symphonic literature. Powerfully introduced by the whole orchestra in the minor mode, the module is ambiguous in

To her close friends she was simply known as “Babette,” but everybody else referred to her as Princess Anna Louise Barbara Odescalchi. That, of course, was her married name as she had wed Prince Innocenz Odescalchi in Pressburg, currently called

Introducing new and unknown pieces of music to a wider public audience is always a special occasion. Ludwig van Beethoven scheduled such a concert full of premieres at the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808. Of course, Beethoven

Beethoven was starting to have some serious health problems when Prince Nikolai Galitzine—an amateur cellist in St. Petersburg and great admirer of Beethoven’s music—wrote to him on 9 November 1822. “May I ask,” the Prince inquired “for one, two, or

3 Duets, WoO 27: No. 1 in C Major (arr. Kazunori Seo for flute and bassoon) I. Allegro commodo From BEETHOVEN, L. van: Flute Works, Vol. 1 (2018) Released by Naxos Beethoven: 3 Duets, WoO 27: No. 1 in C