HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEETHOVEN!!!

Beethoven, 250 years ago this month, was born on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn, Germany. There is no authentic record of the exact date of his birth; however, the registry of his Baptism on the 17th of December 1770, survives, and the custom in the region at the time was to carry out baptism within 24 hours of birth. There is a consensus, (with which Beethoven himself agreed) that his birth date was December 16th, but there’s no documentary proof of this.

Of the seven children in the family only Ludwig, the second-born, and two younger brothers survived infancy.

Beethoven's first music teacher was his father, Johann. The regime was harsh and intensive, often reducing the young pianist to tears. There were irregular late-night sessions, with the young Beethoven being awakened and dragged from his bed to the keyboard.

His musical talent was obvious at a young age. Ludwig’s father, aware of Leopold Mozart’s successes at promoting his son Wolfgang and daughter Nannerl, attempted to promote his own son as a child prodigy, claiming that Beethoven was six (he was actually seven) on the posters for his first public performance in March 1778.

Pianist Stewart Goodyear became aware of Beethoven at a very early age and immediately fell in love with his music and recently Goodyear has, on several occasions, performed all of the Beethoven piano sonatas — 32 sonatas in a single day!