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Donald Macleod launches his year-long focus on Beethoven by asking conductor Marin Alsop and historian Simon Schama why Beethoven's life and work still matter today.

All through 2020, as part of Radio 3's Beethoven Unleashed season, Donald Macleod takes an unprecedented deep dive into the compelling story and extraordinary music of Ludwig van Beethoven. In this uniquely ambitious series, told across 125 episodes of Composer of the Week, Donald puts us inside Beethoven’s world and explores his hopes, struggles and perseverance in all the colourful detail this amazing narrative deserves. Alongside this in-depth biography, Donald will also be meeting and talking to Beethoven enthusiasts and experts from across the world to discover how his music continues to speak to us in the twenty-first century. Through story and sound, the series builds into a vivid new portrait of this composer, born 250 years ago this year, who made art that changed how people saw themselves and understood the world.

Bagatelle in A minor (Fur Elise), WoO 59
Lang Lang, piano

String Quartet No 10, Op 74 (Harp) (3rd movement)
Artemis Quartet

Symphony No 3 in E flat major (Eroica) (3rd movement)
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Grosse Fuge, Op 133
Takacs Quartet

Symphony No 5 in C minor (1st and 2nd movements)
Vienna Philharmonic
Simon Rattle, conductor

Produced by Martin Williams for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Wales