Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Volume 1

These 457 letters strip away the mythology surrounding Beethoven to reveal the man beneath the myth: brilliant, volatile, desperate, funny, and utterly human. Spanning 1790 to 1826, they document the composer s early struggles for patronage in Bonn and Vienna, his torturous relationship with his nephew Carl, his agonizing battle against deafness (including the heart-wrenching confession that he contemplated suicide upon learning he was going deaf), and his relentless wars with publishers over money. We see Beethoven flirting awkwardly, complaining bitterly about servants, begging for loans, debating philosophy with Goethe, and signing off with the haunting phrase 'In haste' as his isolation intensified. Yet these pages also contain moments of startling tenderness: his grief at his mother s death, his devotion to impossible loves like Giulietta Guicciardi, his fierce loyalty to friends like Baron Zmeskall. For anyone who has ever wondered what it felt like to be Beethoven, to carry genius inside a failing body, these letters are the closest thing to a direct transmission from the man who changed music forever.