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Love inspired Beethoven’s best works, but he never made sweet music with the women he adored, an expert says.
- Ludwig van Beethoven died a virgin, claims an important biography
- The composer rejected intimacy, but often fell in love with the women he encountered.
He was inspired to write musical masterpieces by the women he loved, but Ludwig van Beethoven died a virgin, a major biography claims.
The composer disdained intimacy, which he considered sinful, although he repeatedly fell in love with the women he encountered, according to author Norman Lebrecht.
“We can be absolutely sure that Beethoven never had sex within a relationship,” he says.
We can be 98 percent sure that he never had sex. She needed love as a stimulus for creation, but she avoided intimacy, considering it tantamount to a sin, a violation of shining ideals.’
Ludwig van Beethoven’s best works were inspired by love, but the composer died a virgin, a major biography claims.
Mr. Lebrecht came to this conclusion after studying hundreds of pages of historical records and the ‘conversation books’ that the German composer, who had been deaf since he was 30, used to communicate with his visitors.
The classical music expert said there was no doubt that Beethoven “serially fell in love”, but these crushes never translated into a physical relationship. He believes that Beethoven’s obsession with his work, his deafness and complex psychological factors meant that he never consummated his passion.
At 41, the composer was ragged and smelly
The author said: ‘Beethoven comes from two generations of alcoholics. His father was quite brutal and violent with both him and his mother. Beethoven felt protective of his mother. He added that after the death of the composer’s mother, Maria, she lived on in her mind as “an untouchable ideal, as a woman who should be protected from male violence and, of course, some male violence can be sexual.”
Lebrecht believes that an incident in the composer’s early life, when he made advances on a friend’s daughter, is revealing.
He said: ‘One finds traces of previous blunders, nothing more. The point is that he is far above the horror of his own conduct.
The composer disdained intimacy -which he considered sinful- although he repeatedly fell in love with the women he encountered.
As it happens, the girl forgives him and remains his lifelong friend. But that’s the way he is with women: he doesn’t trust himself with them.
Lebrecht believes that the sensitive Beethoven was also appalled by the moral depravity he encountered upon arriving in Austria at the age of 21, saying that he was “revolted by Viennese carnality and the corruption of the rich”. This is a city where rich people would buy pubescent daughters of their musicians so they could personally deflower them.
It was Sodom and Gomorrah. One of Beethoven’s contemporaries could only have sexual relations with his wife if they visited a brothel. When Beethoven is invited by a friend to a brothel, he makes it clear that he has no intention of attending.
Lebrecht said earlier claims that the composer may have frequented such places were likely the result of mistranslations, saying that ‘a lusthaus’ was a café at the time, not a brothel as its name implies.
Lebrecht said that Beethoven tended to fall in love with unattainable women. He said, “He falls serially in love at age 20, then forgets about it.”
“Then, when he turns 40, he starts falling in love again serially because he needs it as a romantic boost for the job he’s doing and because he realizes he doesn’t have a family. She is alone in the world. But at this stage he is a 41-year-old man, ragged and smelly.’
Mr Lebrecht’s book, Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in 100 Pieces, is published by Oneworld on Thursday.