A magisterial work offering a fresh look at Beethoven's life, career and milieu. Lockwood is a world-renowned Beethoven scholar and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. 50 illus An authoritative work offering a fresh look at Beethoven's life, career, and milieu. Magisterial -New York Review of Books. Illustrations xiii Preface xv Prologue. Youth, Maturity, Old Age: Three Letters 3(22) 1787: The Death of Beethoven's Mother 3(5) 1812: Letter to a Child 8(4) 1826: The Old Child 12(3) Life and Works 15(10) PART ONE: THE EARLY YEARS 1770-1792 1. Beginnings 25(28) Bonn as a Musical Center 25(6) Bach from the Hands of Neefe 31(4) Kant, Schiller, and the Enlightenment 35(3) Max Franz and the Mozart Legacy 38(4) Family, Friends, and Patrons 42(4) To Vienna in Search of Mozart 46(1) The Last Years in Bonn 47(3) Waldstein's Prophecy 50(3) 2. Music of the Bonn Years 53(16) Early Keyboard Music 53(2) This passage has been stolen from Mozart 55(7) Composing and Sketching 62(2) Cantatas for Two Emperors 64(5) PART TWO: THE FIRST MATURITY 1792-1802 3. The First Years in Vienna 69(24) The Political Atmosphere 69(4) Vienna as a Musical Center 73(1) Confronting the Viennese Aristocracy 74(6) Haydn 80(6) Playing for an Elector and a King 86(2) Entering the Publishing World 88(5) 4. Music of the First Vienna Years 93(18) Revising Earlier Works 93(3) Chamber Music and Piano Sonatas 96(15) 5. Years of Crisis 111(13) Deafness 111(4) The Heiligenstadt Testament 115(9) 6. Music for and with Piano 124(23) The New Way and the Early Sketchbooks 124(6) A Laboratory of Invention: More Piano Sonatas 130(10) From Convention to Originality: Piano Variations 140(2) New Violin Sonatas 142(2) The Earlier Piano Concertos 144(3) 7. Music for Orchestra and the First Quartets 147(22) The First Symphony and the Prometheus Ballet 147(4) The French Dimension and Military Music 151(5) The Second Symphony 156(3) Opus 18: I have now learned how to write string quartets 159(10) 8. The First Maturity: An Overview 169(12) PART THREE: THE SECOND MATURITY 1802-1812 9. Beethoven in the New Age 181(21) Napoleon and Self-Made Greatness 181(6) Beethoven and His Milieu 187(9) Relations with Women 196(6) 10. New Symphonic Ideals 202(36) The Heroic and the Beautiful 202(2) The Third Symphony (Eroica) 204(10) The Fourth Symphony 214(3) The Fifth and Sixth (Pastoral) Symphonies 217(13) The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies 230(8) 11. The Mature Concertos 238(14) The New Symphonie concertante: The Triple Concerto 238(3) The Fourth Piano Concerto 241(4) The Violin Concerto 245(3) The Emperor Concerto 248(4) 12. Music for the Stage 252(17) The Opera Leonore and Its Overtures 255(7) The Coriolanus Overture 262(4) Incidental Music for Goethe's Egmont 266(3) 13. Vocal Music 269(11) Oratorio and Mass 269(5) The Songs 274(6) 14. Beethoven at the Keyboard 280(32) Improvising and Composing at the Piano 280(8) Pianos 288(4) The Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas 292(7) Piano Sonatas Opp. 78-81a 299(4) Lyrical and Monumental Chamber Music 303(9) 15. String Quartets 312(21) The Razumovsky Quartets 312(13) The Harp Quartet and the Quartetto Serioso 325(8) PART FOUR: THE FINAL MATURITY 1813-1827 16. The Fallow Years 333(16) The Congress of Vienna 334(2) Lighter Works 336(1) Celebrating Wellington's Victory 337(4) Fidelio 341(1) New Sonatas 342(2) An die ferne Geliebte 344(2) Emergence of the Late Style 346(3) 17. Beethoven's Inner and Outer Worlds 349(17) Isolation and Deafness 349(6) The Guardianship Struggle 355(3) The human brain...is not a salable commodity 358(5) The Final Projects 363(3) 18. Bringing the Past into the Present 366(11) The Third Maturity 366(4) Beethoven's Knowledge of Bach and Handel 370(7) 19. Late Piano Music 377(23) The Hammerklavier Sonata, Opus 106 377(7) Piano Sonatas Opp. 109-111 384(7) The Diabelli Variations 391(4) The Late Bagatelles 395(5) 20. The Celestial and the Human 400(41) The Missa solemnis 400(11) The Ninth Symphony 411(2) The Political Background of the Ninth 413(4) Changing Views of the Ninth 417(7) Composing the Ninth 424(3) The Character of the Ninth 427(14) 21. Timeless Music: The Last Quartets 441(50) Introduction 441(5) Opus 127 446(6) Opus 132 452(6) Opus 130 and the Grand Fugue 458(10) Opus 131 468(11) Opus 135 479(9) Final Thoughts 488(3) Notes 491(60) Chronology 551(8) Bibliography 559(20) Classified Index of Beethoven's Works 579(6) Index of Beethoven's Works by Opus Number 585(6) General Index 591