LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(Bonn, December 16, 1770 - Vienna, March 26, 1827) was a German composer, conductor and pianist. His musical legacy covers, chronologically, from the classical period to the beginnings of musical romanticism. He is one of the most important composers in the history of music and his legacy has had a decisive influence on later music. Considered the last great representative of Viennese classicism (after Christoph Willibald Gluck, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Beethoven managed to transcend the music of romanticism, influencing the diversity of nineteenth-century musical works. His art was expressed in numerous genres and although symphonies were the main source of his international popularity, his impact proved to be mainly significant in his works for piano and chamber music. His production includes piano genres (thirty-two sonatas for piano), chamber music (sixteen string quartets, seven trios, ten sonatas for violin and piano), vocal (lieder and an opera: Fidelio), concertante (five concertos for piano and orchestra, one for violin and orchestra) and orchestral (nine symphonies, overtures, etc.), among which is the cycle of the Nine Symphonies, including the Third Symphony, also called Eroica, in my ♭ major, the Fifth Symphony , in C minor and the Ninth Symphony, in D minor (whose fourth movement is based on the Ode to Joy, written by Friedrich von Schiller in 1785).