Major Works:
String Quartet No. 10 in E♭ major, Op. 74 ("Harp") (1809)
Piano Sonata No. 25 ("Cuckoo") (1809)
Piano Sonata No. 26 ("Les adieux/Das Lebewohl") (1810)
String Quartet No. 11 ("Serioso") (1810)
Egmont Overture and incidental music (1810)
Piano Trio No. 7 ("Archduke") (1811)
Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") (1811)
Symphony No. 7 (1812) and Symphony No. 8 (1812)
Violin Sonata No. 10 (1812)
Piano Sonata No. 27 (1814)
The final version of Fidelio (1814)
Cello Sonata No. 4 and Cello Sonata No. 5, Op. 102 (1815).
Some music historians consider the two Op. 102 cello sonatas as the beginning of Beethoven's "late period." Others mark it with Piano Sonata No. 28 (1816) or Piano Sonata No. 29 (1818). All of these works, to some degree, indicate a move toward the introspective nature of the late works.
Events:
by 80%. Inflation has increased 5,000% over the past several years. A couple of Beethoven's
patrons will default on the promised annuity. Archduke Rudolph will increase his contribution,
but Beethoven's financial problems are growing as he will spend great sums on his brother Carl's
illness. Rudolph will be Beethoven's most important sponsor from this point on, and
Beethoven dedicated far more compositions to Rudolph than to anyone else - including the
Fourth and Fifth ("Emperor") Piano Concertos, the Piano Sonatas "Les Adieux" and
"Hammerklavier," the Violin Sonata opus 96, the Archduke Piano Trio (named for Rudolph),
the Missa Solemnis and the Grosse Fuge.
Beethoven has a particularly bad year with his health, and goes to a summer spa, but ignores
his doctor's orders to take a break from working.
Beethoven has yet another potential romance collapse with a rejected marriage proposal.
1811 - 1812 - Despite several successes, Beethoven is in a troubled period. More through happenstance
than any serious event, Beethoven loses most of his friends to their illnesses, to their
moving away, or their personal problems. In a diary, he expresses anguish over the
realization he will never find a wife and have a family. He becomes very lonely
and thoughts of suicide return. Friends report him being dirty and wearing tattered
clothes. He was probably drinking heavily.
Moreover, he had been struggling for a artistic new direction since his "heroic" period
ended a few years earlier and his deafness increases. He will be almost completely deaf
in six to seven years.
1812 - The year of the mysterious "Immortal Beloved" letter. Beethoven is in a relationship with an
unknown woman. He is feeling upbeat and produces two symphonies.
In July, Beethoven and Goethe meet. They spend a week together, talk of possible
collaborations, but don't really hit it off. There is no record of future contact between them.
1813 - Beethoven has his most successful concerts with two new pieces, Wellington's Victory
("Battle Symphony", Op. 91), a piece of populist fluff that commemorated the Duke of Wellington's
victory over Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria in Spain in June 1813) and
Symphony No. 7, Beethoven's most ebullient orchestral work.
1814 - Beethoven's hearing fails him during a performance of the Archduke piano trio. He is
humiliated and never plays the piano in public again.
The violinist and composer Louis Spohr witnessed a rehearsal of the work, and wrote:
"On account of his deafness there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist
which had formerly been so greatly admired. In forte (loud) passages the poor
deaf man pounded on the keys until the strings jangled, and in piano (soft) he played
so softly that whole groups of notes were omitted, so that the music was unintelligible
unless one could look into the pianoforte part. I was deeply saddened at so hard a fate."
After Napoleon loses tens of thousands of troops in Russia in 1812, and the Duke of Wellington
defeated the French in Spain in 1813, Czar Alexander I of Russia now marches into Paris.
Napoleon is forced to abdicate, exiled to Elba, and the Bourbon Dynasty is restored under
Louis XVIII. Napoleon will return within a year and be defeated at Waterloo by the
Duke of Wellington. He is exiled for the final time.
1814 - Beethoven revises Leonore / Fidelio and premiers the new version in March. It is a critical and
popular success. Beethoven is lionized throughout Europe. While critics used to castigate him
for his "bizarre" sounds, they now praised the "pure holy rage" in his music. The idea of
Beethoven as a Romantic genius is in full bloom.
Nov. 1814 - 100,000 people from monarchs to prostitutes descend on Vienna, a city of 200,000, for
the Congress of Vienna where European dignitaries will hash out what to do about post-Napoleonic
Europe. The projected three week convention lasts nine months. Fidelio is performed to
cheering crowds. Beethoven cheers up.
In November of 1815, Beethoven's brother Carl dies, leaving Beethoven with acrimonious joint custody of his nine year old son, Karl, with Carl's wife, Joanna. Bitter lawsuits follow as the mother attempted to regain custody. Beethoven was harsh withe the boy, who often ran away to be with his mother. Late in Beethoven's life the boy attempting a failed suicide at age 19. Beethoven got him into the military and Karl lived to age 52.
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