LUDWING VAN BEETHOVEN - A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION

Proposes a new way of listening to Beethoven that takes us beyond the iconic scowl and more nearly reflects the way in which the composer's contemporaries heard his music
Approaches Beethoven's music as a series of variations on his life as manifested through his ideals and his attitudes toward deafness, friendship, love, religion, money, and politics
Draws heavily on Beethoven's writings - his letters, his diary - and lets the composer's personality emerge through his own words