I like Beethoven. After all, he is VAN’s namesake. I’ll admit to wildly conducting along with the Fifth, in my bedroom, at age 13—the first classical music I ever loved. But one of the things that makes Beethoven so likable is the uneven quality of his work. No perfectionist, you can absolutely tell when he was phoning it in or doing a gig for cash. In other words, he was a working musician as well as a great composer. As the obligatory adulation of his 250th anniversary year begins, that’s worth remembering. Here are Beethoven’s 10 worst pieces, ranked.
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