Beethoven: The Man Who Couldn't Hear His Own Masterpiece
Content warning: this episode discusses suicide, childhood abuse, and mental health.
Vienna, May 7th, 1824. A 53 year old man in an ill-fitting green coat is on the podium in front of an orchestra twice the normal size, punching at the air, crouching low, leaping up. The musicians aren't watching him. Before the concert the stage manager told them not to look at Beethoven and to follow the assistant conductor instead. He is conducting a symphony he cannot hear.
When it ends he's still going, several bars behind. A young alto named Caroline Unger walks over and turns him around so he can see…
The skinny
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