Composer of the Week: Beethoven: Fate

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

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An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Beethoven Unleashed: Fate: The Art of the Deal

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The Art of the Deal

Beethoven Unleashed: Fate

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Beethoven Unleashed: Fate, The Art of the Deal

Beethoven turns businessman to turn his music into cash.  Presented by Donald Macleod.

Beethoven must learn to be savvy in the ways of money and business if he is going to survive as a freelance composer in Vienna.  Presented by Donald Macleod

Beethoven was determined to turn his back on the creative restrictions that came with a salaried post, in the service of one of the royal courts or the church; but if he was to survive as a freelance composer he would have to learn to be a businessman as well as an artist. 

All this week, Donald Macleod traces Beethoven’s story through the years 1799-1801.  As he reaches his thirtieth birthday, we see Beethoven finally emerging as a mature composer and beginning to produce the enduring works that will mark him out as one of the great artists of his age.   But there are clouds on the horizon too, and we see the first intimations of a serious problem with his hearing.

Composer of the Week is returning to the story of Beethoven’s life and music throughout 2020. Part of Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed season marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Piano Sonata No 13 in Eb major, op 27 No 1, I. Andante
Louis Schwizgebel-Wang, piano

String Quartet Op 18, No 3, I. Allegro, II. Andante con moto) 
Calidore Quartet

Piano Sonata No 11 in Bb, Op 22  III. Minuetto & IV. Rondo
Sviatoslav Richter, piano

Violin Sonata Op 23
Aleksey Semenenko, violin
Inna Firsova, piano

Composer of the Week: Beethoven Unleashed: Fate

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod traces Beethoven's story through the years 1799-1801.

Donald Macleod traces Beethoven's story through the years 1799-1801. As he reaches his thirtieth birthday, we see Beethoven finally emerging as a mature composer.

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