Born to Maria Magdalena Keverich and Johann van Beethoven on or about the 16th of December, Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on December 17 in Bonn, Germany.
Johann was a musician determined to teach his son piano and violin, by force if necessary and to the detriment of Ludwig's general education which wasn't pursued beyond elementary school. An abusive and alcoholic Johann exploited Ludwig's natural talents, forcing him to practice for endless hours in view of creating a child prodigy.

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Baptism of Ludwig's brother Caspar Anton Carl.

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Baptism of Ludwig's new brother Nikolaus Johann.

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In spite of his father's rough treatment, Ludwig's passion for music was genuine and he went on taking violin, organ and piano lessons. At the age of eight, he gave his first public performance, in Cologne.

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Christian Gottlob NEEFE, a concert performer and music teacher employed at the Elector's theater, was at times substituted by 12 year old Beethoven who became his student. Neefe's teaching perfected Beethoven's composition skills, and urged the publication of Beethoven's first work, the Dressler Variations for piano, along with several sonatas. Neefe called young Beethoven "the next Mozart."

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Ludwig quit school to start touring full-time at the age of 13.

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The Choir of Maximilian Franz appointed 14 year old Ludwig as its deputy organist, on Neefe's recommendation. This exposure to new circles and different lifestyles undoubtedly helped shape Beethoven's character and influenced his music.

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17 year old Ludwig made his first visit to Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart who was hardly impressed by the adolescent. Before having a chance to demonstrate his true talent, Beethoven had to rush back to Bonn when he learned his mother was dying.

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Maria Magdalena van Beethoven passed away. Johann had by then become an irresponsible alcoholic incapable of assuming the charge of raising two young boys and Beethoven took it upon himself to replace him as head of the family.

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Johann van Beethoven passed away. William became financially responsible for his two younger brothers. He accepted a contract as violinist at the Opera of Bonn where he performed until 1892.

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Franz Joseph Haydn passed through Bonn and upon recognizing the boy's talent not only as a performer but as a composer as well, insisted that Beethoven follows him to Vienna. The elector of Bonn offered Beethoven a grant to help with expenses of Beethoven's musical education.

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Beethoven arrived in Vienna. Although the teacher-student relationship didn't work out for long between Haydn and Ludwig, Vienna offered a rich source of musical influence and Beethoven studied with Salieri, Albrechtsberger and Schenk, promptly establishing a reputation as a piano virtuoso and composer of exciting intensity. He was performing for Vienna's wealthy aristocracy, and the sales of his works provided enough to send money home to his two brothers.

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Carl, his brother, joined him in Vienna while Beethoven was composing his first Piano Trios, opus 1.

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Beethoven made his first public performance in which he played his own works, in Vienna, while three of his Piano Sonatas and his Trios for Piano were being published. Later that same year, his brother Johann arrived in Vienna. As was to happen often to a passionate Beethoven, he fell madly in love and proposed to Magdalena Willmann who refused him. Beethoven left for a tour in Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin before leaving for a concert in Budapest.

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Numerous works composed in these years (Sonatas for Piano, Cello, Violin, String Trios, Quintet...) Beethoven's expression through his music resulted in a new style that influenced the transition between Classical Baroque music and Romantic compositions. At the same time highly emotional, violent, passionate and dramatic, yet with an omnipresent softness and romantic feeling overwhelming the audience, Beethoven revolutionized the concept of music as being a powerful form of "voicing" seemingly contradictory facets of a profound and enigmatic genius' mind.

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Beethoven began composing his First Symphony.

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Performance by Beethoven himself of his First Symphony in Vienna. This presentation was labeled "overly extravagant" by some of his audience, as it did not conform to the style of the time, while appreciative veterans called it "daring." A young Beethoven was already pushing the guidelines of established "rules" of composition. He also composed his Second Symphony that year while his hearing loss was certainly well underway.

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Confession to his friends of real concern about becoming deaf. Although we do not know for sure when Beethoven's hearing loss truly started, his apprehension of deafness led to depression and suicidal thoughts, yet there again he ended expressing his anger into more and more powerful compositions. It was during this time of personal crisis that Beethoven fell in love with Countess Giulietta Guicciardi to whom he dedicated his Sonata quasi una Fantasia, later known as "Moonlight Sonata."

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Hoping for treatment at Heiligenstadt where he learned none was adapted to cure his condition, Beethoven wrote his friends about "the unfairness of life," describing his disgust over being a musician becoming deaf and not wanting to live through it. Ludwig addressed his brothers the 'Heiligenstadt Testament' suggesting he did have thoughts of imminent death, but his passion for music took over with strengthened determination resulting in an intense Third Symphony, dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte.

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Beethoven became the appointed composer for the Theater of Vienna. Ludwig's total devotion to his work while in despair for personal relationships with the feminine gent only deepened his increasingly passionate and profound compositions, seemingly in proportion to his isolation through worsening deafness and accumulating marriage refusals.

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Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas.

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When Bonaparte declared himself Emperor, it was reported by Breuning, who shared Beethoven's quarters that an infuriated Ludwig crossed out the Bonaparte name from the score. On April 7th, first performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony, renamed "Eroica."
Ludwig's Opera "Leonore" was unsuccesful when it premiered on November 20th. He was to review and refine it on and off for the next nine years.

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Marriage of Ludwig's brother, Caspar Anton Carl on May 25th 1806. Beethoven was in an incredibly productive phase, composing String Quartets, Piano Concertos and more notably the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies and the Corolian Overture.

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Composition of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major and the Sixth Symphony, "The Pastoral," followed by an acclaimed first performance of both the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies at a benefit concert on December 22nd.

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Beethoven composed the famous Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, known as the "Emperor" Concerto.
Being accorded an annual grant of 4000 Florins by his aristocratic friends and admirers in Vienna, Beethoven became the first independent composer to date able to author works as he pleased. The only condition imposed was that he remains in Vienna which Beethoven consented to. He also admitted a new pupil : the Archduke Rudolphe.

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"Für Elise" composed in honor of Thérèse Malfatti, a lady Beethoven was considering marrying. He was once more rejected.

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Beethoven began writing his Seventh Symphony late in the year and completed it in less than three months. This magnificent composition is a work which Beethoven himself called his "most excellent."

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Ludwig, very depressed by the failure to fulfill his marital hopes was denounced as fighting with his brothers and others, while exhibiting strange behavior and rude manners. His strength of character was legend and the sum of his struggle and passionate conflicts conveyed through his compositions had reached its apex with the Seventh Symphony.

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The most successful concert of Beethoven's life, featuring the Seventh and Eight Symphonies and Wellington's Victory established the composer as the greatest of his time. The audience was simply overwhelmed by the grandeur of his achievements and the enthusiasm and admiration was not to be deceived by the first presentation of Fidelio a few months later...

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Beethoven completely rewrote the unsuccesful Leonora and renamed it Fidelio. This latter version received praise and applause and remains the only Opera composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.

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On November 15, Beethoven's brother Caspar Anton Carl died, leaving behind a 9 year old son, Karl, and his mother nicknamed "the queen of the night" by Ludwig who obviously did not approve of her lifestyle. Designated guardian along with the mother, he quickly decided she was unfit to care for the child, and obtained sole custody of his nephew from the Court.

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Beethoven became ill. Stress, anger, battling for custody, financial concerns due to Prince Kinsky’s death - a patron providing Beethoven with regular salaries - may explain the condition which only worsened as time passed.

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Beethoven had become completely deaf and could communicate only by writing ; to his close visiting friends on a notebook, to the world through music. He yet composed an eloquent Hammerklavier Sonata said to test the best of a pianist's talent as its technical requirement, depth, and sheer speed associated with its extensive scale break most who attempt to tackle it.

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Beethoven lost the custody of Karl, as the boy's mother proposed to the Court that Beethoven's deafness rendered him unfit to care for him. In spite of his illness, Ludwig composed Missa Solemnis, a monumental choral work that revolutionized religious music. Dedicated to his pupil Archduke Rudolph as he became the Archbishop of Olmutz, his work was unfortunately finished too late to celebrate that occasion.

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Numerous workings on lesser known variations and arrangements of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English folksongs. Beethoven started composing his Ninth and Tenth Symphonies while battling for the custody of his nephew, Karl, who he named as his heir.

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Public performance of the monumental Ninth Symphony. Beethoven, ill and completely deaf, insisted on conducting it himself. The musicians stopped playing but Beethoven was continuing to conduct until a soprano turned him around so that he could see the thunderous clapping and ovation given him.

One of the most sublime works ever composed, the Ninth was received with triumph and acclaim yet failed to solve Beethoven's financial difficulties.

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Beethoven composed some String Quartets which did not meet with success.

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An already very ill Beethoven contacted pneumonia. He underwent several operations but his health further declined.

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Beethoven drew up his will on January 3rd and received the last rites on March 24th.

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Legend reports that Beethoven died during a storm. He closed his eyes when lightning lit up his room at 5:45 PM.

The last words spoken by Ludwig van Beethoven were, “I shall hear in Heaven.”

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An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 admirers lined the streets of Vienna for Beethoven's funeral. Soldiers were deployed to control the grief-stricken crowds. Never had a composer become such a celebrated public figure during his living.

Ludwig never finished his Tenth Symphony of which only the First movement (complete) remains.

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The String Quartets composed between 1824 and 1826, have become the yardstick against which all musical compositions are today measured.

The fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony has become the Anthem of the European Union.

The standard 74-minute capacity length of a CD was determined by the performance length of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

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