The enduring image of Beethoven, 250 years after his birth: His hair is untamed. His temperament is as mercurial as his mane. He is, both as an artist and a man, uncompromising and volatile; his whole personality wrapped up in the fateful knock of the first four notes of his Fifth Symphony, or the two bracing slaps that launch his “Eroica” Symphony. He is a man who, in the end, triumphed in the long-game of history despite being betrayed by women, family, patrons, politicians, and his own body.
A Most Violent Year
Beethoven at the Brink
