DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN

Beethoven as Child Prodigy.

Beethoven's first published works, with one exception, were his three piano trios, Op 1. He composed them when he was 25, which was an advanced age for an Op 1 back then.That has led to the belief, that unlike Mozart, he was not a prodigy. It is not true. He and his advisers may have believed that in a world where both Mozart and Haydn were actively composing, it were wise to wait until he could appear on the scene as a fully developed virtuoso.

The city of Bonn, Germany, where Beethoven was born, governed by the brother of Emporer Joseph II, who sponsored Mozart, was a cauldron of culture. A public national theater played Shakespeare and Schiller. Beethoven's teacher Neefe composed opera, and the young Beethoven played in an orchestra.

Here is his sonata WoO (without Opus Number) 47, number 2 in F minor. It is the second of three sonatas he composed at the age of 11-12.