17 year old Beethoven playing for Mozart. Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 1770-1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. In about 1800 his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. He gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers. During his final years, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem. |