In the summer of 1801, while composing his Second Symphony, Beethoven revealed the secret of his deteriorating hearing in a long and passionate letter to his childhood friend Franz Wegeler. After recounting assorted professional successes, he goes on to disclose that “that jealous demon, my wretched health, has put a nasty spoke in my wheel; and it amounts to this, that for the past three years my hearing has become weaker and weaker.”
A little more than a year later, and just as he was completing the Second Symphony, Beethoven wrote his “Heiligenstadt Testament,” the famous unsent letter to his brothers in which he expressed utter despair over his loss of hearing. In this revealing confession he alludes to suicidal thoughts and states that on account of all of his torments “I would have ended my life. Only my art held me back…”
And here is this amazing work, as conducted by Daniel Barenboim with some fine young musicians. (I am deeply disappointed that YouTube is now inserting commercials in these videos; just click “Skip Ads”)
