Audiobook · read by volunteers
Selected Letters of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Read by Robert Scott, Scott D. Farquhar, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Ezwa, Victor Guerreiro, Squid Varilekova, WangHaojie, Gesine, Steven H. Wilson, Tonia · 20 chapters · 3 h 31
About the book
Beethoven’s music is known all over the world, but his letters let us hear another voice. In this selection, translated into English by Lady Grace Wallace, the composer writes to friends, patrons, publishers, doctors and family, and in his own words we see his humour, his sudden anger, his tenderness, his money worries and his struggle with encroaching deafness. We find him thanking an old companion, apologising for a quarrel, bargaining about a fee and, in some of the most famous passages, confessing the despair that nearly overcame him. The letters were drawn from a larger compilation by Ludwig Nohl and Ludwig von Köchel. Ten LibriVox volunteers share the twenty sections. About three and a half hours of listening bring a great artist closer, as a person and as a man of his time.
Introduction
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 and died in 1827. He was a German composer, a pianist of formidable skill, and one of the most influential figures in the history of Western music. His symphonies, string quartets and piano sonatas remain central to the repertoire, and he did much to extend the expressive range of classical forms.
This collection is a selection of Beethoven’s letters, taken from the compilation by Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, who lived from 1800 to 1877, and Ludwig Nohl, who lived from 1831 to 1885. It was translated into English by Lady Grace Wallace and published in 1866. Köchel is best known today for his catalogue of Mozart’s works, while Nohl was a German music historian who edited several volumes of letters from the great composers.
Letters offer a different kind of access from biographies. Some of these are short and practical, concerned with a publication, a loan or a visit. Others are intensely personal, and a few touch on the composer’s deafness, his difficult relations with family members and his search for friendship and love. Because they are selected, they cannot give a complete picture, and the translation reflects the style and the scholarship of its era.
The recording has twenty sections, each devoted to a single letter or group of letters, and lasts about three and a half hours. Ten volunteers share the reading. It will interest music lovers, students of the Romantic period and anyone who enjoys reading, or hearing, the private words of a famous person.
Public domain
Ludwig van Beethoven died in 1827: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive