Being Beethoven

Groomed as a prodigy by a demanding and often violent father, Beethoven's psyche is also marked by the death of his mother when he is 16 years old. Beethoven emerges as a great but troubled talent, an unstoppable force of nature until the onset of deafness tears his world apart.

Beethoven embarks on a new creative path and attempts to find love. But, as is often the case, the composer's life appears to be following a very different trajectory to his art.

In 1815, the death of his brother is the catalyst for a long and bitter legal battle for custody of Beethoven's nephew, Karl. What follows is a protracted period during which the composer's desire for love and family tip over into obsession. Beethoven will, of course, embark on the extraordinary flowering of the late music.