This first programme looks at Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and 2nd Symphony, and charts his turbulent early years as a pianist and composer in Vienna, after having rejected his abusive alcoholic father.

The music of Beethoven's creative middle years is explored, alongside the dramatised recollections of his family and friends. In this period he wrote five symphonies, four concertos, and his only opera - Fidelio.

Beethoven again revolutionises musical composition with works such as the Hammerklavier Sonata, the Missa Solemnis, the 9th Symphony and the baffling late string quartets - all composed when he was profoundly deaf.