Beethoven is the heroic composer who always fought in music: with fate (the Third Eroica, the Fifth “Fate”); with deafness (from age 26 his hearing progressively failed); with poverty; with human loneliness. His greatest works were written completely deaf — he heard the music only with the inner ear.
Peaks: 9 symphonies (especially the Fifth with its “fate motif” and the Ninth with the Ode to Joy — today's anthem of the European Union); 32 piano sonatas (Pathétique, Moonlight, Appassionata, Hammerklavier); 16 string quartets (the late ones are the most enigmatic works in the classical repertoire); piano concertos (especially No. 5, the Emperor); the opera Fidelio. Beethoven transformed the very essence of what a composer is: from a court servant into a genius equal to princes.
