Beethoven Biography Essay

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in December 16, 1770 in Germany. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was his first music teacher. It is reported that Beethoven’s father was a very strict and hard music teacher. Beethoven knew how to play the piano, viola, and the organ, and was on his way to showing the public his talent at the early age of 7. His most important music teacher in Germany was Christian Gottlob Neefe, who helped him publish his first composition at the age of 10, which was a set of nine keyboard variations in C minor. Beethoven’s biggest influence was Mozart, which he met in Vienna in 1787. He wanted to study under Mozart but was not able to due to his mother’s death, which forced him to go back to Germany. In 1792, at the age of 22, Beethoven made his second attempt to move to Vienna where he studied with Joseph Haydn.
He put this job off and did not start composing until two-days before his deadline. Beethoven knew his procrastination might cost him this performance and so he started to frantically write out the score as four copyists stood by in his apartment snatching pages from him as he completed them and rushed to make orchestral parts. The premiere of the Piano Concerto No.2 in B-flat major, Op.19 was on March 2, 1795 and it was a great success. It was written in only two days because of Beethoven’s procrastination but surprisingly it became a masterpiece. It even shocked Czech composer and pianist Vaclav Tomasek. It was noted by many that the piece was unlike anything they have heard before, they claimed that it had “daring deviations” that no other composer or performer has ever done before. Although the criticism was good, Beethoven was not happy with the piece and revised it many times. The final version of this piece, the one everyone hears today was first heard in