Ludwig van B. and Franz Schubert resided in the same city for 31 years, but we don’t really have conclusive evidence that they ever met. We do know that they moved in different social circles, and that Schubert admired Beethoven

Throughout the years 1808/09, Beethoven was restlessly moving from apartment to apartment. From October 1808 he resided at the home of Countess Erdödy at Krugerstrasse 1074, in March and April 1809 he took an apartment on the 2nd floor of

It’s taken a while to get to this article. When the Interlude.HK organisation requested an article about LVB + Me to contribute to his 250th birthday celebrations, I thought ‘great, how hard can that be?’, and then promptly spent the

On 29 March 1795 Ludwig van Beethoven made his public debut in Vienna. Performing at a charity concert at the Burgtheater, Beethoven appeared as a composer as well as the featured virtuoso. He performed a piano concerto of his own,

By placing Ludwig van B. on a musical pedestal we tend to forget that he was surrounded by a whole host of talented composers and musicians who competed for his audience. And as we all know, Beethoven was a difficult

In 1809, the French army under Napoleon once again set their sights on the city of Vienna. On short notice, the imperial family fled the city, but it was decided that Vienna should nevertheless be defended. French howitzers bombarded the

My first encounter with Beethoven was through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music aural tests back when I was a little kid. One part of the test was to clap the rhythm of a short excerpt and

Between 1796 and 1799, Beethoven did not have a permanent address in Vienna, at least not that we know. He was busily engaged in establishing his reputation, and rubbed shoulders with royalty and with Joseph Haydn. He played a piano