Agreed, Grishka. Beethoven was already a well-known composer before he started to lose his hearing. He was so immersed in music that even when deaf, when he wrote something, or even when he looked at a piece of someone else's sheet music, he could hear it in his "mind's ear," so to speak.

It's amazing that he wrote his Ninth Symphony (the "Choral Symphony," with the last movement built around Schiller's poem, "Ode to Joy") when he was stone deaf. Legend has it that when he conducted its debut presentation, his conducting was way off. He was hearing it in his head, but managed to get "out of sync" with what the orchestra and chorus were actually doing. Fortunately the orchestra and singers were well rehearsed and managed to keep it together even though the conductor was off in his own world.

When it was over, Beethoven heard no applause from the audience. He stood there with tears running down his cheeks, convinced that he was simply past it. It was a failure! But the first violinist stood up and turned him around so he could see the audience on their feet and cheering wildly!

I don't know if the legend is true or not, but I like to think so. It didn't change Beethoven from being a surly bugger, but then he was born that way.

Anyway—    Back to our regular broadcast. . . .

Don Firth