LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Beethoven: Hearing
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One of Beethoven's well-known sonatas is the "Pathétique" Sonata, op. 13 in C minor. This sonata retains its magnetic effect and demoniac power even in today. Entirely new in this sonata was the dramatic introduction in the first movement, which is connected with the following allegro, and partly repeated before the development section and again before the very end. Beethoven was showing the new possibilities of this form for sonata. This sonata was dedicated to one of his important supporters, Prince Carl von Lichnowsky.
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Beethoven's personal life was troubled. His encroaching deafness led him to contemplate suicide (documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament). Beethoven was often irascible, and may have suffered from bipolar disorder,[15] and irritability brought on by chronic abdominal pain beginning in his 20s which has been attributed to his lead poisoning.[13] He ... had a close and devoted circle of friends all his life, thought to have been attracted by his reputed strength of personality. Towards the end of his life, Beethoven's friends competed in their efforts to help him cope with his incapacities.[16]
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Beethoven composed the great sonata op. 106 in B-flat major ("Hammerklavier") in 1817. In the first movement, he used a tonal device; he used the lower third (broad arch to the subdominant) in the exposition and development section. This sonata was published by Artaria in 1819 and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph.
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The bones made their way into Kaufmann's family in 1863, when Beethoven's body was exhumed, studied and reburied. Kaufmann's great-great-uncle, an Austrian doctor named Romeo Seligmann, is said to have acquired them while making models of the skull, Meredith said.
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Around 1810 Beethoven was especially drawn to the poetry and drama of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom he met in 1812 through the initiative of Goethe’s young literary friend Bettina Brentano. Bettina’s sister-in-law Antonia Brentano was probably the intended recipient of Beethoven’s famous letter to the “Immortal Beloved.” The letter dates from July 1812 and apparently marks the collapse of Beethoven’s hopes to seek happiness through marriage. Following this disappointment, Beethoven’s output declined significantly, and during 1813 he was generally depressed and unproductive.
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Gance's signature fast-cut editing is taken to new heights as he treats Beethoven's music with the same experimental vision, underscoring all of the action and accentuation the effects of the editing with choice moments from various compositions. The world of 19th Century Vienna is compellingly evoked with its mixture of old world customs as well as its exciting and glamorous aura of the birth of new worlds of art and culture. The perennial outsider--destitute, heartbroken and deaf--Beethoven seems fated to be forgotten, but his love as well as his voluptuous music thrust him into immortality, as Gance details his final cinematic ecstasies and agonies.
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