Radical artist and visionary pioneer: Beethoven as a brand

This is how people all over the world introduce themselves to composers. The painting by Karl Joseph Stieler, created in 1819, shows Beethoven working on his Missa solemnis - ingenious and hard working. The highlight of the "Beethoven brand"!

At the same time, Beethoven dealt with his time: freedom, justice and the relationship with nature. Not only did he expand the boundaries of music, he also asked the great questions of his time. People of all centuries could identify with his ideas.

When Beethoven once again argued with one of his patrons, the following sentence slipped out of his mouth: "Prince, what you are, you are by chance and birth, what I am, I am by myself; princes have it and will have thousands more; Beethoven there is only one.

The name alone cannot have been a coincidence: His parents named Ludwig van Beethoven after his grandfather. He was a successful musician who even conducted the Bonn court orchestra at the end of his career. Little Ludwig was therefore expected to achieve great things.

Although this picture does not show Beethoven (but the Breuning family), we can imagine Ludwig in the old man when he had to play his first public concert at the age of seven. His father made him a year younger for marketing purposes.

For his father forced Ludwig to take hard piano lessons at an early age. He often made the boy cry by slapping him in the face and other mean things. In contrast to his grandfather, Johann van Beethoven had not made it far - and alcohol did not make him more sociable.

The paternal style of upbringing sounds like drill and coercion by today's standards. But for the time it was almost taken for granted that a talented young musician should become a wunderkind à la Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But nothing came of it...

Beethoven's teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe not only brought Beethoven into contact with the ideas of the Enlightenment. He also explained to Ludwig how he could make his name known to the rich and powerful. A crash course in self-promotion, so to speak...

Later, it was the music publishers who took a special interest in Beethoven's image. They had flattering portraits made so that the notes sold better. This engraving was published in 1801 by the same publishing house that published the Moonlight Sonata.