Beethoven

Dear friends of piano music,

The Beethoven year is over, so it's time to play Beethoven. Not because I have something against anniversaries and all the fuss, but simply because I think that every year should be a Beethoven year. But who is this Elise now? I recently read that the real Elise could actually have been a Therese, but I'm not a musicologist. If any of you should know, please write to me. Until then, I'll be content with what the music tells us about the young lady: She must have been quite shy and introverted, her look a little melancholy, but inclined to sudden outbursts of emotion that range from humor to despair. I think it's very personable.

As we know, Beethoven was unmarried - a fate that he shared with many of his colleagues, because what did he have to offer a woman other than a free, idealistic spirit and completely disordered circumstances? So all that remains for him, the horror of all potential in-laws, is to fall in love with high-class daughters whom he was allowed to give piano lessons and who might make eyes at him before they were properly betrothed with someone else. To live with a composer, it took an extraordinary woman like Clara Schumann or George Sand, who were able to support themselves and their children. Because at that time there was simply a lack of appropriate training, the young women learned to play the piano, handicrafts and conversation in order to be the decoration of the household, but not how to finance it. Quite apart from that, I wonder whether Clara Schumann has not occasionally regretted marrying the brilliant Robert against her father's declared will, who at some point jumped into the Rhine in nightwear ... Marriage with a genius is certainly never boring, but above all one thing: extremely exhausting.

Best regards from Heidelberg

Kerstin