It is also the reason why when we try to describe music with words, all wecan do is articulate our reactions to it, and not grasp music itself.

By all accounts he was a freethinking person, and a courageous one, and I find courage an essential quality for the understanding,let alone the performance,of his works.

Beethoven’s habit of increasing the volume with an extreme intensity and then abruptly following it with a sudden soft passage was only rarely used by composers before him.

Especially significant was his view of freedom,which,for him,was associated with the rights and responsibilities of the individual:he advocated freedom of thought and of personal expression.

One could interpret much of the work of Beethoven by saying that suffering is inevitable,but the courage to fight it renders life worth living.