Episode 37 – The Immortal Beloved

John puts Beethoven’s love life in the spotlight, as he attempts to uncover the identity of the composer’s so-called “Immortal Beloved”; the subject of a love letter Beethoven wrote, the intended recipient of which is lost to history. John also plays a short love song that he suspects was dedicated to her, and discovers a piece that Beethoven wrote for the daughter of a woman he was known to be close to. Could she be the one? John thinks so, and explains why. He also plays the overture that opened a concert given in Beethoven’s honour after he was unable to give his Piano Concerto No.5 its first performance, tells the story of Beethoven’s disastrous journey to a spa town to recover his health, and plays part of the work that Beethoven composed whilst he was there; a piece he referred to as “my little symphony”, his Symphony No.8. All the Beethoven pieces featured in this podcast are taken from the 90-disc Naxos box set, the Complete Beethoven Edition. You can buy yours by heading to Presto Classical and Europadisc.