BBC Arts has revealed Beethoven: Rise of a Genius, a fresh triad of episodes blending documentary and drama for BBC Two and iPlayer designed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death in spring 2027.
Produced by 72 Films, the project continues the company’s series exploring iconic figures such as Mozart, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. It traces Ludwig van Beethoven’s ascent from a budding virtuoso with fierce ambition to a pioneering composer, weighing his artistic triumphs against personal difficulties—including his volatile temperament, his quest for a remedy to his hearing loss, and his doomed romance with the “Immortal Beloved.”
Beginning at age 27, Beethoven began to endure a gradual decline in hearing, ultimately losing his hearing entirely by the time of his death in Vienna on 26 March 1827. To convey this experience, the production blends Beethoven’s own testimony, letters, and conversational notebooks with innovative sound design.
The series benefits from the involvement and perspectives of deaf individuals and organizations, including sign-language broadcaster LumoTV and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). On-screen contributors include Jon Batiste, Sir Simon Russell Beale, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Sir George Benjamin, while Beethoven’s masterworks—from the Moonlight Sonata to the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies—are performed by musicians such as Jeremy Denk, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Jonathan Biss, and Nicky Spence.
Suzy Klein, Head of BBC Arts and Classical Music TV, remarked: “Beethoven is the musician who speaks most directly to the human soul… Our aim in this series was to illuminate Beethoven’s astonishing creativity alongside the loss of his hearing, in an era when deafness was not well understood.”
David Glover, co-founder and CEO of 72 Films, added: “He channels his deafness into his music and uses his art to express his deepest emotions.”
Additional BBC programming for the 200th anniversary will include a special edition of You’re Dead to Me recorded at the Southbank Centre and a Horrible Histories: Banging Beethoven Special on CBBC.
