Pieces of Beethoven

A documentary to commemorate the bicentenary of Beethoven's death in March 1827.

Director Sheila Hayman, best known for “Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn” (2023), brings together scientists, musicologists and top musicians to reassemble the scattered legacy of the composer, creating a new image of the man and the artist.

From fragments of his hair, groundbreaking DNA analysis by Tristan Begg at the University at Leuwen unlocks the mystery of his deafness and final illness; and that he's not a Beethoven.

Alan Gosman and Lewis Lockwood spent seven years deciphering the Eroica sketchbook, revealing his creative process - and the gestation of the famous opening of the Fifth Symphony.

Neurobiologist David Ginty from Havard Medical School discovered that certain kinds of touch are processed in the brain together with hearing. Even at the end, Beethoven may have heard through his hands.

While the Beethoven Haus in Bonn shows us the ideas and emotions revealed by his manuscripts, Susanne Cox at the Beethoven Werkstatt demonstrates a piece of software that analyses and separates the different elements on a page.

Meanwhile Carol Albrecht shows us Beethoven's Vienna; with her husband, she's spent decades making sense of the deaf Beethoven's conversation books, tracking his movements and associations.

The documentary circles around the Eroica symphony, from gestation to triumphant finale; we also hear excerpts of his other symphonies and his piano music and encounter the composer as Vienna's most celebrated improvisor.

We invite broadcasters to join this innovative project.