Beethoven the Beginning (DVD)

The Only Film about Beethoven’s Childhood and Youth…
The film spotlights Beethoven’s childhood and youth. More recent studies have shown how Ludwig van Beethoven’s family history and his childhood laid the foundation for his exceptional musical development. In contrast to popular opinion, we now know that his genius as a musician and composer manifested itself even during his youth which he spent in Bonn, in an atmosphere of cultural and political awareness. Here along the Rhine, his strong, unconventional personality revealed itself, breaking new ground, step by step, helping him evolve into a talented improviser, and thereby completing the first stage of his tremendous life’s work.
Loek Dikker’s very special soundtrack conveys, in a contemporary way, the tension between improvisation and conventional musical forms.
A balanced and yet surprising narrative form combines entertaining fiction with the insights of sound academic research, and thus vividly presents an important key to our understanding of Ludwig van Beethoven as a person and a composer.