The Music Plays On — Beethoven’s 250th Birthday

Leonard Bernstein at the Berlin Wall in 1989

Probably born on this day in Bonn, Germany, in 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sestercentennial is being celebrated around the world for his music and accomplishment, and justifiably so. His music had an incalculable impact on not only how music would be composed after him, but how music would be played. For really the first time we see in Beethoven a musical artist who takes political and philosophical…