To Live Life Alone
Beethoven comes to realise that his failing hearing might never improve and composes an anguished letter to posterity, mourning his plight. Presented by Donald Macleod.
Beethoven comes to realise that his failing hearing might never improve. It’s a turning point that will reverberate through the rest of his life and which Beethoven immortalised in an extraordinary letter to his brothers and to posterity.
All this week, Donald Macleod traces Beethoven’s story through the momentous years of 1802 and 1803. It was a time that saw remarkable developments in Beethoven’s creativity as he pursued a self-declared ‘new path’ for his music. He undertook his most ambitious works yet, pouring his whole self into his art. At the same time his personal life was reaching a crisis point that would plunge him to the darkest depths of despair and threaten to ruin all his carefully laid plans for the future.
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 17, Op.31 No.2 ‘The Tempest’, III. Allegretto
Khatia Buniatishvili, piano
Missa Solemnis: Kyrie
Julia Vardy, soprano
Iris Vermillion, mezzo-soprano
Vinson Cole, tenor
René Pape, bass
Berlin Radio Choir
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
Symphony No.2, Movts. III & IV
Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Thierry Fischer
Violin Sonata in A major, Op.47 ‘Kreutzer’, II. Larghetto.
Veronika Eberle, violin
Oliver Schnyder, piano
Variations in Eb Op.35 ‘Eroica’, final movt.
Emanuel Ax, piano
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Music Played
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 17 in D minor, Op 31 No 2, 'Tempest' (3rd mvt)
Performer: Khatia Buniatishvili. -
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Mass In D Major Op.123 'Missa Solemnis' - Kyrie
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Choir: Berlin Radio Choir. Singer: Júlia Várady. Singer: Iris Vermillion. Singer: Vinson Cole. Singer: René Pape. Conductor: Georg Solti.- Decca 4443372.
- DECCA.
- 1.
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 36 (3rd & 4th mvt)
Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Thierry Fischer. -
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata in A major, Op 47 'Kreutzer' for violin and piano (2nd mvt)
Performer: Veronika Eberle. Performer: Oliver Schnyder. -
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Ludwig van Beethoven
15 Variations in E flat major, Op 35 'Eroica' (Final fugue)
Performer: Emanuel Ax.- SONY : 88765-420862.
- SONY.
- 17.
Broadcast
- Tue 19 May 2020 12:00Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3
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