"Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength."-Henry Ward Beecher.

An illustrious and extremely large audience listened with rapt attention and did not stint enthusiastic, thundering applause. Beethoven himself conducted; he stood in front of a conductor’s stand and threw himself back and forth like a madman. At one point he stretched to his full height, at the next he crouched down to the floor; and he flailed about with his hands and his feet as thoughhe wanted to play all the instruments and sing all the choral parts. -Violinist Joseph Bohm, describing the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770 to a father who was an angry drunkard. As a composer Beethoven early on garnered a reputation as a revolutionary genius. He began to go deaf while still in his 20s; the realisation led first to thoughts of suicide, and then, as Johan Alkerstedt writes, to a period of "one of the most prodigious outpourings of masterpieces in the history of music." He died at age 57 in 1827.

The Ninth Symphony represents, as Alkerstedt writes, a "shattering explosion" of music and "the most influential symphony ever composed." Although Beethoven stood at the conductor’s podium, he was actually stone deaf, and another individual conducted the orchestra. At the conclusion he had to be turned around to face the audience, where he saw – but not heard – the thundering applause.

An irascible personality, Goethe called him "utterly untamed." But he was – and is – acknowledged near and far as perhaps the greatest composer ever. Poet Franz Grillparzer wrote "we could not help admiring him and feeling drawn to him."