[Publius]

By 1820, when Beethoven was 50, the legal battle over custody of his nephew came to an end. This wasn’t good for the nephew, who found his uncle to be a very jealous and possessive guardian. Karl was to attempt suicide because of this.

But the floodgates opened in Lou Beethoven’s output, and his late style was becoming more apparent. Almost totally deaf, he was hearing the sounds and voices of music only in his head, which actually liberated him.

Lou had given up on romancing women, replacing them with quick visits to the whorehouses of Vienna. Some of his friends offered their wives for the night, and Lou took up the offers. Today the women would wear T-shirts proudly inscribed “I slept with Beethoven”, but back then things were handled more discreetly.

The Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109, was finished in 1820, and Lou dedicated it to Max Brentano, whose wife Toni had been Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved. Forget the movie of that title; the writers failed to read Maynard Solomon’s biography of Beethoven on that matter. Ken Russell’s novella Beethoven Confidential handles the subject accurately and with humor. This was a bittersweet dedication, for Lou and Toni rarely corresponded by letter anymore.

If you want to understand this piece, I have a lecture by Andras Schiff.

Andras Schiff explains Opus 109

This is the late Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau from 1977.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109

[left that other site]

I kind of liked that movie, but had a sneaking suspicion that it was “All Hollywood”. LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Publius, for sharing Beethoven with the troops and all of us. ((HUGS))