Konzert für Klavier und Orchester [Nr. 1-5]

German composer and pianist, born in 1770 (baptized 17 December 1770) in Bonn, Germany and died 26 March 1827 in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven was the eldest son of a singer in the Kapelle of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the Archbishop's Kapellmeister. He moved in 1792 to Vienna, where he had some lessons from Haydn and others, quickly establishing himself as a remarkable keyboard-player and original composer. By 1815 increasing deafness made public performance impossible and accentuated existing eccentricities of character, patiently tolerated by a series of rich patrons and his royal pupil the Archduke Rudolph. Beethoven did much to enlarge the possibilities of music and widen the horizons of later generations of composers.