ABOUT THIS LECTURE

In 1794 Joseph Haydn wrote a sonata for the brilliant pianist Therese Jansen, a work of astonishing depth and complexity. A year later his pupil Ludwig van Beethoven composed his first piano sonata, which owed more than a little to Mozart (who had died four years earlier) and gave no indication of the ingenuity and originality his subsequent thirty-one sonatas would exhibit.

In 1795 everyone’s money would have been on Haydn as the architect of nineteenth century romantic spirit, not this gruff young man from Bonn.

In this illustrated lecture Paul Kildea – musician, author and Artistic Director of Musica Viva, Australia – looks at the emergence of the genius Beethoven against a backdrop of romanticism, revolution, and fast-changing piano technology and audience tastes.

ABOUT THIS LECTURER

Associate Professor Paul Kildea is a musician, a musicologist (Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne), and the Artistic Director of Musica Viva. He is the author of books, articles, and reviews on music and musicians, including Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century (2013).

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Presented by the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Centre, Works That Shaped The World is an engaging series of talks exploring humankind's achievements and creations. The 2020 series focuses on the year 1770, and the legacy of people and objects born in that year.