Roll On, Beethoven!
Published: 6/4/2026
Written by: Barbara Barkovich
The Mendocino Music Festival’s featured composer this year is Ludwig van Beethoven, known to nearly everyone in the world and a huge influence on Western classical music. The festival, which runs from July 11th to 25th, is celebrating its 40th year with a recognition of Beethoven’s enduring importance and his irresistible melodies. For anyone who wants to bone up on the immortal composer, the library has a selection of materials for children and adults.
Beethoven was born December 16, 1770, in Bonn, capital of Rhineland. He learned the keyboard young and was largely self-taught, with an extraordinary ability to improvise. He started earning money as a musician at the age of 13 to help support his family. His playing was well received, with his skill at variations and his emotional style of playing. Some of his early pieces will be on display at the festival on July 14, when a chamber group plays his String Trio Op. 9 # 3 and his Quintet for Winds. On July 16th brilliant young pianist Anthony Ratinov will play the Sonata Pathétique.
Beethoven performed at the piano until the late 1700s, but began losing his hearing (believed the result of an illness) and his performing career was forced to end. From 1798 to 1801 he began a set of string quartets and wrote his first symphony and a second piano concerto. He had a breakdown in the summer of 1801 because of bad health and growing deafness. He went to a sanatorium in Heiligenstadt, a rural village near Vienna, in April, 1802 to rest. He wrote a long letter (called the Heiligenstadt Testament) to his brothers, admitting his deafness and his struggles with it. Thereafter, he turned to composition, writing more piano sonatas with unconventional structures and mood variations. His rhythms became more unusual and his dynamics more adventurous.
Beethoven’s piano compositions became larger and more emotional, requiring new designs for pianos. Symphonies 5 and 6 were premiered in December of 1808. On July 22 the Festival Orchestra will play the melodious and peaceful Symphony 6, The Pastorale. He then shifted his attention to chamber music, including more string quartets and piano sonatas. Archduke Rudolph, a member of the Hapsburg dynasty and a prominent bishop, was a student and admirer and became his most important financial supporter. Beethoven dedicated many works to him including the Archduke Trio, which will be played on July 21 by a chamber group.
The 7th and 8th symphonies were finished in 1812. With these, Beethoven breached the limits of the traditional symphony. Performing them required more musicians and additional instruments. The 7th (which will be played by the Festival Orchestra on July 12) focuses on rhythm, not melody or harmony. Audiences were a little mystified.
From 1812 to 1816 he composed little, but he wrote the first-ever song cycle in 1816 called “An die ferne Geliebte,” commemorating the end of Beethoven’s relationship with his Immortal Beloved. (Learn more about the mystery woman in Susan Waterfall’s film “Beethoven” on July 5th at Preston Hall.) Soprano Sylvie Jensen will perform the song cycle on July 21. He returned to keyboard music that became less structured and more improvisational. He wrote a new series of piano sonatas, and you can hear the last three played by Rachel Breen on July 23.
The 9th Symphony, which will be played by the Festival Orchestra on July 25, premiered in 1824, in Vienna. It was different from any symphony before because it included a massive choral movement. Beethoven used fragments from German poet Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” eliminating the references to drinking and politics and focusing on larger philosophical issues. The musicians and the singers found it difficult to perform, and they still do, but it is hugely popular with audiences. He wrote a few more string compositions after that, but his health was failing and he died March 26, 1827, at the age of 56.
The library has two DVDs about Beethoven: “Copying Beethoven” for adults, and for kids the Special 60th Anniversary Edition of “Fantasia,” with some of his music. Also for children there is a wonderful book called “The Heroic Symphony.” Adults will be interested in John Suchet’s “Beethoven: The Man Revealed;” “Thayer’s Life of Beethoven” by Elliot Forbes; and “Beethoven, A Life” by Jan Caeyers.
The library is open on Monday from 10am until 5pm, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10 am until 2 pm. Visit our web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) to learn about becoming a member or to find any item in our collection.
Written by: Barbara Barkovich
The Mendocino Music Festival’s featured composer this year is Ludwig van Beethoven, known to nearly everyone in the world and a huge influence on Western classical music. The festival, which runs from July 11th to 25th, is celebrating its 40th year with a recognition of Beethoven’s enduring importance and his irresistible melodies. For anyone who wants to bone up on the immortal composer, the library has a selection of materials for children and adults.
Beethoven was born December 16, 1770, in Bonn, capital of Rhineland. He learned the keyboard young and was largely self-taught, with an extraordinary ability to improvise. He started earning money as a musician at the age of 13 to help support his family. His playing was well received, with his skill at variations and his emotional style of playing. Some of his early pieces will be on display at the festival on July 14, when a chamber group plays his String Trio Op. 9 # 3 and his Quintet for Winds. On July 16th brilliant young pianist Anthony Ratinov will play the Sonata Pathétique.
Beethoven performed at the piano until the late 1700s, but began losing his hearing (believed the result of an illness) and his performing career was forced to end. From 1798 to 1801 he began a set of string quartets and wrote his first symphony and a second piano concerto. He had a breakdown in the summer of 1801 because of bad health and growing deafness. He went to a sanatorium in Heiligenstadt, a rural village near Vienna, in April, 1802 to rest. He wrote a long letter (called the Heiligenstadt Testament) to his brothers, admitting his deafness and his struggles with it. Thereafter, he turned to composition, writing more piano sonatas with unconventional structures and mood variations. His rhythms became more unusual and his dynamics more adventurous.
Beethoven’s piano compositions became larger and more emotional, requiring new designs for pianos. Symphonies 5 and 6 were premiered in December of 1808. On July 22 the Festival Orchestra will play the melodious and peaceful Symphony 6, The Pastorale. He then shifted his attention to chamber music, including more string quartets and piano sonatas. Archduke Rudolph, a member of the Hapsburg dynasty and a prominent bishop, was a student and admirer and became his most important financial supporter. Beethoven dedicated many works to him including the Archduke Trio, which will be played on July 21 by a chamber group.
The 7th and 8th symphonies were finished in 1812. With these, Beethoven breached the limits of the traditional symphony. Performing them required more musicians and additional instruments. The 7th (which will be played by the Festival Orchestra on July 12) focuses on rhythm, not melody or harmony. Audiences were a little mystified.
From 1812 to 1816 he composed little, but he wrote the first-ever song cycle in 1816 called “An die ferne Geliebte,” commemorating the end of Beethoven’s relationship with his Immortal Beloved. (Learn more about the mystery woman in Susan Waterfall’s film “Beethoven” on July 5th at Preston Hall.) Soprano Sylvie Jensen will perform the song cycle on July 21. He returned to keyboard music that became less structured and more improvisational. He wrote a new series of piano sonatas, and you can hear the last three played by Rachel Breen on July 23.
The 9th Symphony, which will be played by the Festival Orchestra on July 25, premiered in 1824, in Vienna. It was different from any symphony before because it included a massive choral movement. Beethoven used fragments from German poet Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” eliminating the references to drinking and politics and focusing on larger philosophical issues. The musicians and the singers found it difficult to perform, and they still do, but it is hugely popular with audiences. He wrote a few more string compositions after that, but his health was failing and he died March 26, 1827, at the age of 56.
The library has two DVDs about Beethoven: “Copying Beethoven” for adults, and for kids the Special 60th Anniversary Edition of “Fantasia,” with some of his music. Also for children there is a wonderful book called “The Heroic Symphony.” Adults will be interested in John Suchet’s “Beethoven: The Man Revealed;” “Thayer’s Life of Beethoven” by Elliot Forbes; and “Beethoven, A Life” by Jan Caeyers.
The library is open on Monday from 10am until 5pm, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10 am until 2 pm. Visit our web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) to learn about becoming a member or to find any item in our collection.