The Spaniard

This is the story of a singular man: Ludwig van Beethoven, child prodigy from Bonn, inheritor of genius and misfortune, son of the Enlightenment, whose music brought the Romantic era into the modern age, captivated and confounded the critics equally as the masses, whose eccentricities appalled many, but whose keyboard mastery astounded everyone, the first composer to explore the full potential of the piano, whose beautiful, intricate, mystifying scores flowed from staggering virtuosity, even as he struggled with chronic illness, volatile moods and passions, and was-for nearly half of his life-profoundly deaf.