Beethoven Everywhere

The music that's universal, the memory that's everlasting

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The original pop culture icon

Why you know Beethoven even if you don't think you do

4 Surprising Places You Can Hear Beethoven Music

From the Simpsons to the stars: Beethoven really is everywhere

12 Reasons To Listen To Beethoven

Fine tune your classical music small talk with this cheat sheet of fun facts

Beethoven Goes Pop!

From the Beatles to Alicia Keys: These tunes from pop, rock and jazz pay a tribute to Beethoven

The Movies That Have Beethoven In The Soundtrack

Light, Ludwig, Camera, Action!

Discover Beethoven in three movements

Learn why the composer just never gets old

The Music

The notes that everyone knows

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The Man

Who was Ludwig van B.?

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The Joy

His everlasting impact

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Listen to some of the greats

Hear some of the very first Beethoven records on Shellac

"Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier!" From "Fidelio"

Tenor Franz Völkel, Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Alois Melichar

Symphony No. 5

Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Richard Strauss

Overture From "Egmont"

Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Otto Klemperer

Symphony No. 7

Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Carl Schuricht

Presto From Violin Sonata No. 9

Pianist Wilhelm Kempff And Violinist Wolfgang Kulenkampff

A Global Ode To Joy

Reimagining the world's tune for 2020

Join the #GlobalOdeToJoy

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#GlobalOdeToJoy with Tracy K.Smith

US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer prize winner Tracy K. Smith reads her "Ode to Joy" new interpretation

#GlobalOdeToJoy with Berlin's Konzerthausorchester

A wild ride through the symphonies

#GlobalOdeToJoy with Lang Lang

The pianist and his interpretation of the Ode to Joy

#GlobalOdeToJoy with the European Union Youth Orchestra

Sharing joyful moments from the road

#GlobalOdeToJoy with Daniel Hope

"There is only one Beethoven"

#GlobalOdeToJoy with Cologne's Guerzenich Orchestra

Dancing their way through the city

Even deafness didn't stop him

How he played on against all odds and inspired the deaf community

"Music Is Like A Dream...One I Cannot Hear"

Dancer Kassandra Wedel and Beethoven's iconic Fifth Symphony raise awareness for World Hearing Day

What Beethoven Means To Deaf Artists

The composer's ambivalent inspiration

Beethoven's Bonn

Explore the museum preserving the legacy

A Guided Tour of Beethoven House

Get a feel for his life as you walk around the house where he was born

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ExploreBeethoven in Bonn and in the eyes of his contemporaries

ExploreBeethoven's Everyday life and the people surrounding him

ExploreBeethoven's music and blows of fate

Beethoven: the remix

A sound that never gets old

Watch & Listen

Bey-thoven: The Unofficial Mashup

The Sam Tsui x Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect Unofficial Mashup

Watch & Listen

Fate Remixed

Electro musician Christian Löffler remixes the historic Beethoven track

Watch & Listen

Pastoral Meets Electro Music

Christian Löffler remixes the historic Beethoven track

The sounds that made Beethoven a legend

Now that you know the man, hear about his music...

The music

Punk's Not Dead...And Neither is Beethoven

Discover just what makes Beethoven's music so eternally fascinating

The music

Sound Familiar?

What the nine famous symphonies would be like if they were office colleagues

Hear from the experts

Members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra talk about their favourite bars

Benjamin Morrison

Violin

Sophie Dervaux

Bassoon

Ödön Rácz

Double Bass

Ekaterina Frolova

Violin

Matthias Schorn

Clarinet

The forgotten story of the Kreutzer Sonata

Rediscovering the Black violin virtuoso George Polgreen Bridgetower

Hidden history

Honoring The Forgotten Master George Bridgetower

Randall Goosby and Zhu Wang perform Beethoven's "Bridgetower Sonata"

Hidden history

Why The Kreutzer Sonata Should Be Renamed

OBE Chi-chi Nwanoku introducing George Polgreen Bridgetower

Hidden history

Following in his Footsteps

Chi-chi Nwanoku and Randall Goosby in conversation about Bridgetower

Sharing a life with Beethoven

What the best among musicians think about Beethoven's music

Why Beethoven's Music Is Like a Rosetta Stone

Baritone Thomas Hampson on the first modern song cycle

Being Leonore

Soprano Karita Mattila on her Beethoven challenges

Unsettle, Surprise And Shock

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin on his lifelong relationship with Beethoven

Beethoven Treasures At La Scala

How the iconic opera house celebrates Beethoven

Bringing Beethoven to Brazil

How Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos advocated for his colleague

Young masters at work

Watch the young musicians of the Karajan Academy working on their Beethoven

Watch A Performance Of Symphonie No. 1

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker

Exploring A Violin Sonata In A Master Class

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker

The Young Musicians On Beethoven

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker

Watch A Performance Of Symphonie No. 4

In Rehearsal

Exploring A Violin Sonata In A Master Class

Everyone's a critic

Reviews on Beethoven - now and then

What they said back then...

"A Great Deal of Disagreeable Eccentricity"

The best worst historic Beethoven reviews

....What they are saying now

"The Greatest Of All"

Artists today reflecting on Beethoven

Keep exploring Beethoven's work

The music

A notorious grump

The challenging nature and unlucky love life of the composer

Get to know Beethoven

Don't Stop Me Now

Deafness, loneliness and personal struggle didn't keep Beethoven from following his path

Get to know Beethoven

Not a Man To Settle?

A tumultuous family life at the search for Frau Beethoven

Get to know Beethoven

Ever Thine, Ever Mine, Ever Ours

Beethoven was never married - yet he wrote some of the most touching love letters

Get to know Beethoven

With A Little Help From My Friends

A composer's social network

What year was Beethoven born?

1770

Draft of the Beethoven Portrait with Missa Solemnis (Joseph Karl Stieler)

Becoming Beethoven

How enlightenment and revolution influenced the composer's worldview

His early life

The Early Compositions

How the sound of Bonn became the sound of Beethoven

His early life

The Times, They Were A-Changing

Experiencing a society in transition

His early life

A Landmark Of Enlightenment

How the city of Bonn shaped its most famous son

The original freelancer

Learn about how Beethoven became the first freelancer in music history

Money, Money, Money

Although not poor, the composer had to be inventive to make a living

The Beethoven Brand

It was not only Ludwig van who was given certain advantages by the "Beethoven brand"...

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How Beethoven had his wealthy patrons wrapped around his finger

Work hard, play hard

Discover how strict discipline and search for inspiration shaped Beethoven's days

What's A Genius's Work-Life Balance Like?

A day in the life of Beethoven

Where Beethoven (Probably) Slept

Beethoven moved house about 40 times while living in Vienna - see where his restlessness took him

Was Beethoven a feminist?

Beethoven's relationship to women was difficult, yet he provided inspiration that lasts until today

The Masculine Mystique

Tracing the composer in feminist art and thought

A Trailblazer For Female Composers?

How Beethoven paved the way for 19th century musicians

"How happy I am to be able to wander among bushes and herbs, under trees and over rocks; no man can love the country as I love it....My miserable hearing does not trouble me here."Ludwig van Beethoven

A force of nature

Learn how the composer was inspired by birds, trees, and the great outdoors

Discover

The Fanfare of a Forest

A closer look at Beethoven's famous "Pastoral" symphony

First Part

A Nature Walk With Beethoven

Enjoy paintings of nature from Monet and others, soundtracked by Beethoven

Second Part

A Nature Walk With Beethoven

Enjoy paintings of nature from Monet and others, soundtracked by Beethoven

Third Part

A Nature Walk With Beethoven

Enjoy paintings of nature from Monet and others, soundtracked by Beethoven

Which symphony did Beethoven dedicate to Nature?

No.6 - "Pastoral"

No.9 - "Ode to Joy"

No.5 - "Symph. of Fate"

No.3 - "Eroica"

No.6 - "Pastoral"

Learn more

What did Beethoven really look like?

Discover how different artists chose to represent the composer

But What Did He Actually Look Like?

Spoiler alert: the portraits are probably all wrong

Candido Portinaris "Head of Beethoven"

The composer as seen by Candido Portinari

The Legendary One

You've probably seen this image before

See His Death Mask...

...and more iconic depictions of Beethoven

Where it all began

Learn more about Beethoven House

The Museum's Turbulent History

How Beethoven's birthplace became one of the most visited museums in the world

Director's Cut

The top expert's picks his 10 favorite items from the museum

Keep exploring Beethoven's life

The man

Beethoven goes pop

Discover how Beethoven's influence has spread across pop culture

Pop culture

There Are Much More Beethoven Fans In Pop Than We Thought

Tracing Beethoven in Hip Hop, Metal and Jazz

Pop culture

The Sound Of Dystopia

Why Hollywood loves Beethoven

Pop culture

An Actor Prepares For Beethoven

Liev Schreiber on performing "Egmont" in 2020

Tributes to Beethoven

Celebrating the composer's 250th birthday in a challenging year

Ravenna Festival's Homages To The Master

A series of events that revealed different the facets of his works

Happy Birthday Beethoven: Highlights From His Home Town

The creative events in Bonn that celebrate the composer's birthday

A changing world, the same joy

An iconic melody and the joy it can bring in difficult times

Ode to joy