Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Birth : 1770-12-16, Bonn, Electorate of Cologne, Holy Roman Empire [now Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany]

Death : 1827-03-26

History

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer. As a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.

Profile

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Movies

Reconstruction
Musician
A man is trapped in his own mindset fortress. He is lost and desires to find his way out using his self-strength and understanding instead of the evidence given by the "mysterious being". When he ignores the evidence, he is pulled back again and forced to start the same loop in different mindsets. After several warnings and falls, he finally frees himself from the fortress - isolated, and perhaps enters another fortress.
Symphony No. 5
Music
An experimental animated short film of shapes and music notes animated by being drawn directly on Adobe Animate.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Original Music Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven headed for Symphony No. 9 literally his entire life. As early as the 1790s, he had an eye on Ode to Joy, perhaps the most well-known poem by Friedrich Schiller, written on the threshold of the French Revolution (1786). In his mature and, in particular, later years, the deaf composer with an acute ‘hearing vision’ increasingly distanced himself from conventional forms and genres and wrote parts beyond the possibilities of instruments of his day. He nurtured the idea of a symphony with a choir for at least several years. The history of the Ninth’s interpretations includes 200 years of staggering revelations and lingering stagnation. Performed by the musicAeterna orchestra, choir, and guest soloists under the baton of Teodor Currentzis, Beethoven’s opus magnum acquires the original poignancy and energy of a recent discovery.
Ivan Basic Piano, Symphony Orchestra RTS, Conductor Srboljub Dinic
Original Music Composer
Beethoven:  Fidelio
Music
Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano, David Butt Philip plays the political prisoner Florestan, and Lise Davidsen his wife Leonore (disguised as ‘Fidelio’) who daringly sets out to rescue him. Set in strong counterpoint are the ingredients of domestic intrigue, determined love and the cruelty of an oppressive regime.
Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos
Music
Krystian Zimerman joined forces with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra last December in Beethoven’s five piano concertos. Their spellbinding performances, streamed on DG Stage from LSO St Luke’s and recorded live by Deutsche Grammophon, harvested a bumper crop of critical superlatives.
Just Like Another Day
Music
A day in the life of a lonely soul seems ordinary but is it really?
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
Original Music Composer
In the ancient theater of Delphi, against the backdrop of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, musicAeterna, conducted by Teodor Currentzis, performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, in conjunction with a new choreography by Sasha Waltz and her company.
Systam
Music
SYSTAM highlights the inhumanity of those highest on the hierarchy, the dominant to the destitute. The film metaphorically depicts the whole process of child trafficking in a systematic way to unveil this hidden scheme. It further accentuates the reality of survival for the fittest, and expresses a range of emotions in the oppressed: the fear, anguish and monotony that shade them for life.
Louis van Beethoven
Original Music Composer
1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.
One
Music
A collaboration between mother and son, dance and film, an abandoned pier and summer weather, filmed in Aquatic Park, San Francisco, June 6 to August 8, 2020.
Just Before I Leave
Music
Moments from a sophomore's life just before he leaves.
An Afternoon at the Cinematheque
Music
The bad day of a film buff at the Cinematheque. A stranger projects herself on the screen and changes its course.
New Year’s Concert 2020 – Vienna Philharmonic
Songs
The 2020 Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert took place on January 1, 2020, under the baton of Andris Nelsons in the Musikverein in Vienna. Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
Chromophobia
Music
This animated coming-of-age story explores the familial, societal, and religious challenges a boy faces because of his sexual orientation.
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1-5 - Uchida, Rattle
Music
There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension. The complete recording of all five works with Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the most spectacular projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Rattle era – and at the same time the highlight of the collaboration between the orchestra and the pianist, which began in 1984.
Slash-Meister
Music
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 3
Music
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 2
Music
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 1
Music
Bad Times At Conformity High
Music
Bad Times At Conformity High follows Thomas (Riley Danson). A sarcastic, fly under the radar kind of guy, who by an all power, British political goddess (Lucrita Hodkinson) has been forced into The Australian School System of All Things Conformity at -- you guessed it -- Conformity High!! Everything has been taken from him by the system, reluctantly pairing up with the mysterious Violet (Holly O'Kelly) in order to seek their completely irresponsible justice.
Beethoven: Fidelio - Salzburg Festival
Original Music Composer
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Music
Kyung-Wha Chung performs Beethoven's violin concerto in this live recording with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Klaus Tennstedt
Beethoven: Symphony 9 by Riccardo Muti
Original Music Composer
Experience what Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti calls “the work of a divine architect” in this special encore presentation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Recorded live September 18, 2014, at Orchestra Hall during one of the opening programs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2014/15 season, this performance features Muti leading the Orchestra and Chorus and distinguished soloists in one of history’s most powerful and inspiring artistic works. A masterpiece whose staggering influence can be seen across classical music, it concludes with the famous Ode to Joy, which calls for understanding, peace and universal goodwill. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to an anonymous donor for generously underwriting the recording of this concert in 2014.
Leaving
Original Music Composer
Renata's heroine silently walks through the fields, an autumn garden, an old mansion, an abandoned greenhouse to the lyric melody of Ludwig van Beethoven, only occasionally turning to the camera. In the frame, Litvinova appears as a brunette who wears long dresses to the floor, capes, hats and expensive jewelry.
Ode to Joy
Music
Photographer and Director Robert Ascroft envisions the inner struggle of working with an Anger Management Therapist. Realized through the eyes of two time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz.
The Addams Family XXX
Music
In The Addams Family XXX, the Addams children are all grown up now and wreaking havoc on the community. Before Wednesday and Pugsly are off to college, Gomez and Morticia decide it's time to have "the talk" with them and no, not the one about the difference between juvie and the state pen. Adhering to family tradition, Gomez brings Pugsly a hooker, while Morticia attempts to teach Wednesday about sex and masturbation. Always the cleverer child, Wednesday quickly applies what she learned to an orgy hosted in the dungeon. With sex in the air, the rest of the Addams feel the urge to play.
The King's Speech
Additional Music
The King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stutter and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country into war.
The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer
Music
In 1976, Jack Unterweger was convicted for the murder of Margaret Schaefer and sentenced to life in prison. While imprisoned, he committed himself to reading and writing, eventually earning literary respect both inside and outside the penitentiary. In 1984, his autobiography "Fegefeuer" (Purgatory) became a bestseller.
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7; Coriolan Overture
Compositor
From the very first bars of the Coriolan Overture, it is apparent that this is Beethoven at his very best. Vladimir Jurowski and his absolutely brilliant Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment give us a new reading of old favorites that may well blow you out of your chair. There is plenty to discover: sounds and textures never heard before, an orchestral timbre as the composer himself may have envisaged and heard, incredible strength and cohesion and, on the other hand, sensitive nuances that often disappear under a blanket of massed strings in more traditional interpretations.
Eroica - Director's Cut
Music
Knowing
Additional Music
A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.
Orchestra
Music
The harmony performed by players who drawn by lines metamorphose.
Karajan - Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies DVD
Author
Symphonien Nos. 1 - 9 Gundula Janowitz · Christa Ludwig · Jess Thomas · Walter Berry Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin Berliner Philharmoniker Herbert von Karajan Directed by: Arne Arnbom, Herbert von Karajan Hugo Niebeling, Hans Joachim Scholz
Beethoven · Missa Solemnis (Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)
Original Music Composer
Fidelio - Beethoven - Opernhaus Zürich 2008
Music
Translucence, transparency – warmth’ are the qualities identified by Bernard Haitink as necessary for an ideal sound performance of Beethoven's only opera, and all are present in this fantastic recording of Katharina Thalbach's 2008 production for Opernhaus Zurich. Haitink conducts the Zurich Opera Orchestra in a magnificent performance in which Leonore Overture No. 3 provides an interlude between the two scenes of the second act, following a tradition started by Gustav Mahler. German soprano Melanie Diener, in the role of Leonore, leads a brilliant cast including Alfred Muff as Rocco, Roberto Saccà as Florestan, Sandra Trattnigg as Marzelline and Christoph Strehl as Jaquino. This High Definition recording with true surround sound marks the start of the exciting collaboration between Opus Arte and Opernhaus Zurich.
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5
Compositor
Under the guidance of famed American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, Polish classical pianist Krystian Zimerman and the Vienna Philharmonic deliver a rousing performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concertos nos. 3, 4 and 5. Premiered in 1808, Beethoven's fourth concerto marked the last time the composer would take the stage as a soloist with an orchestra.
Ed's Eaten Elevenses
Additional Soundtrack
Jancsó’s farce, similar to the previous ones, is about our time and about death. Pepe marries into a family of mafiosi, with the father-in-law rolling in money. In a joint venture they establish the first Hungarian Prison Limited company, where there is a menu, the prisoners are residents, and they furnish the place of execution for those volunteering to execute themselves. It turns out that the first voluntary hanging should be demonstrated on Pepe. In 180 AD Emperor Marcus Aurelius is dying in Vindobona, being fed with blades of hay by uncle Miki himself, and his son Kornél Mundruczó. Kapa provides for communication: he insists on telling lies, lies and again lies. Furthermore, there are several to die and to revive, to win and to lose, and Melancholy Béla is still alive.
Keeping Score: Beethoven's Eroica
Music
Beethoven spent three years composing the Eroica, an intimate journal of his emotional crises and his dramatic emergence as an original master. Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony help you make sense of this voyage into life as it really is.
Karajan: Beethoven - Symphonies 1, 2 & 3
Compositor
This set was recorded in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Herbert von Karajan is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest conductors of the 20th century, and around 1970 he was at his peak.
CARLOS KLEIBER Bayerisches Staatsorchester
BRAHMS: Symphonie No. 4 MOZART: Symphonie No. 33 BEETHOVEN: Ouvertüre · Overture »Coriolan« Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Dérives
Music
Short movie
Listening
Songs
At a spa where talking is forbidden, an emotionally distraught woman finds solace in the company of a kind man and the two of them gradually fall in love.
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major - Mikhail Pletnev, Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker
Original Music Composer
Claudio Abbado conducts the prestigious Berliner Philharmonikerfor during a concert dedicated to Beethoven. The programme includes the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19 with the Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev whose dazzling technique adding to a delicate sensitivity merges instinct and intellectual rigour, and the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125.
The Cupboard
Original Music Composer
A retiree who is thrown out of the lodging where he lives with a closet, his only belonging, meets a girl from the street and will keep each other company
Fantasia 2000
Music
Blending lively music and brilliant animation, this sequel to the original 'Fantasia' restores 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and adds seven new shorts.
Symphony No. 5
Music
Abstract patterns and shapes that resemble butterflies in various colorful shades, tints, and hues explore a world of light and darkness whilst being pursued by a swarm of black bats. The world is ultimately conquered by light. Introduced by surviving archival recordings by Deems Taylor.
Star Trek: Insurrection
Additional Soundtrack
When an alien race and factions within Starfleet attempt to take over a planet that has "regenerative" properties, it falls upon Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to defend the planet's people as well as the very ideals upon which the Federation itself was founded.
Rozhdestvo
Original Music Composer
The film is about the birth of the Child
Christophe Coin, le musicien
Music
Welcome Home
Music
Yuriko, once a concert pianist, now practices home-making while husband Takashi stays out late with co-workers, leaving her to decay into severe mental illness.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War
Music
Reinhard von Müsel and Yang Wen-li return to their respective homes, one victorious and the other defeated. While Reinhard earns the new name Lohengramm, while Yang and his friends celebrate some welcome news.
Das Mauerkonzert
Compositor
Erinnerung - ein Film mit Oskar Kokoschka
Music
Samuel
Music
Scenes in a foggy train station: a little boy and several adult figures can be seen. Underlaid with music.
The Conductor
Music
A violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the US ties up with the world- renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out he was once in love with violinist's mother. The conductor, a slightly unstable hypochondriac, returns to Poland to lead the provincial orchestra. He also tries to revive old love affair using the violinist as a surrogate of her mother. Her husband is resentful of the conductor for both personal and professional reasons.
Lemmings, Part 1: Arcadia
Music
This two-part drama examines the fate of Haneke’s own generation which came of age after World War II. The first part depicts the generational gap between 1950s teenagers and their parents while the second shows this same group of characters twenty years later as they have grown up to be dysfunctional and suicidal adults. Regarded as the most significant of Haneke’s early works, Lemmings contains incipient treatments of many of the themes he would later elaborate on in his theatrical features.
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Compositor
Karajan's very best video Beethoven 9th Symphony, recorded December 31, 1977. The Quartet of vocal soloists and Chorus in IV are superb. This is much better than Karajan's 1968 Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven 9 video (DG), filmed in the Philharmonie with no live audience present.
The Lorry
Music
In this most talky and personal of films, director Marguerite Duras and actor Gerard Depardieu do an on-camera read-through of a movie script. Occasionally, the director comments about the characters or their motivations, and sometimes the actor does. That's all -- there is no action, there are no location shots, no one pretends to be anything else. The script itself tells about an encounter between a blank-slate of a woman hitchhiker, and a communist truck driver. As the reading progresses, Duras comments bitterly about the failed ideals of communism and the glorious revolution that will probably never happen.
Poslední zkouška
Music
Beethoven – Tage aus einem Leben
Music
Vienna, 1813-1819: Beethoven (played by Donatas Banionis) is at the peak of his fame. Orchestras all over the world play his music, but he lives modestly and is dependent upon private patrons. Nagged by his patronizing brothers, spied upon by officials for his republican beliefs and faced by his progressive hearing loss, the composer becomes more and more isolated. Seeman’s poetic film explores the joys, heartbreak and artistic spirit of the great composer as he works on his Ninth Symphony.
To Die... To Sleep... Perchance to Dream
Music
Given the proximity of death, the experiences of the past come to the memory of Juan. In a fragmented, sometimes confused way, Juan relives the crucial moments of his life, always linked to the names of women. Moments that remind him of having missed numerous opportunities to be happy.
Beethoven Piano Concertos 1-5
Compositor
These recordings, filmed in March and April 1974 for the BBC, occurred at the tail end of the old performance era and the very start of the new. Vladimir Ashkenazy was a graduate of the same Soviet school of piano playing that produced Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Lazar Berman and a host of others of that era. There are simularities that unite them, including a broad romanticism, a degree of Lisztian showmanship coupled with periods of introspection, powerful technique that occasionally borders on pounding and an intellectual streak that produces some deeply insightful playing. Ashkenazy was younger than the others, more modern in his playing.
Eroica
Music
Space and Light
Music
An award-winning wordless documentary that explores the architecture of the then new St. Peter's Seminary which is now seen as one of the most important post-war buildings in the United Kingdom. The film was made in celebration after architect Jack Coia was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1969. Winner of the Medalla de Bronce at the Fifth Union of International Architects Festival in Madrid (1975).
Beethoven - Symphony No. 7
Original Music Composer
Recording of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan playing Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
Beethoven: Fidelio
Original Music Composer
Beethoven's opera Fidelio, conducted by Karl Böhm, featuring Gwyneth Jones as Leonore and James King as Florestan
Sorrows
Music
Set to music by Beethoven, this lyrical portrait moves from a chilled and misty exterior to the crystalline interior of the Swiss chateau that King Ludwig II built for Wagner.
Lola
Additional Soundtrack
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.
All the Boys Are Called Patrick
Music
A pickup artist/womanizer named Patrick inadvertently pursues two young women who happen to be roommates.
Fidelio
Music
Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 9: Beethoven: Symphony No. 5/Respighi: The Pines of Rome
Original Music Composer
The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Broadcast #9 was of a concert on March 22, 1952, at Carnegie Hall, featuring Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Respighi's Pines of Rome. (Concerts #8 and #9 were released on "Vol. 5" in the DVD series.)
Eroica
Music
Biopic about Ludwig van Beethoven.
Dance of Fire
Songs
The sometimes profound, sometimes slightly sordid tale of Elena, a famous concert pianist who, as a child, was sexually assaulted by a circus clown while the music of Manuel de Falla "Ritual Dance of Fire" could be heard from the circus tent. Since that time, Elena has gone into hysterics every time she hears that composition. Making matters worse, the lascivious clown is now her business manager.
Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 2: Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Original Music Composer
The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Broadcast #1 was of a concert on April 3, 1948, at NBC Studio 8H, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ("Choral"). (Concerts #1 and #2 were released on "Vol. 1" in the DVD series.)
Apasionadamente
Original Music Composer
The romance between a young aristocratic woman and an unlucky painter that takes place in the lakes of Bariloche.
The Yankee Doodle Mouse
Additional Soundtrack
As Tom and Jerry stage their typical fight sequences, the patriotic soldier theme of the title is evidenced by such things as a carton of eggs labeled "Hen Grenades"; Jerry dropping light bulbs from an airplane like bombs; and Jerry sending a telegram with the message "Sighted Cat - Sank Same." Musical phrasings from various patriotic war songs are heard throughout.
Claro de luna
Original Music Composer
Two twins fall in love with the same man and he thinks he only loves one woman.
Fantasia
Music
Walt Disney's timeless masterpiece is an extravaganza of sight and sound! See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Fantasia over and over again.
The White Disease
Music
The White Plague, a leprosy-like disease, ravages the world during a war. Based on a play by Karel Čapek.
Häxan
Music
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.
u bored u die
Music
When the Gorksniff aliens suddenly begin killing off all of Wisconsin's cows, one unusual family must survive the invasion by locking up together inside at Grandma's house.
In Solitude
Sound
a short film about a lonely writer trying to adapt Shakespeare's Julius Caeser, but things go differently as he comes to terms with his solitude