Dr. Richard Kogan described the psychological factors that influenced famed composer Ludwig van Beethoven during a presentation titled “Beethoven’s Deafness: Psychological Crisis and Artistic Triumph” at the Morning Forum of Los Altos June 7.
Kogan, who has a long career both as a concert pianist and a psychiatrist, studies piano composers who had intrapsychic conflicts that affected their creative process. He accompanied his talk with several selections. Kogan is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical College and artistic director of the Cornell Musical and Medicine program.
He called Beethoven one of the greatest creative forces in the history of western civilization. What distinguishes him, Kogan said, is the distance of his artistic journey. He evolved dramatically from the start of his career to the end. Kogan highlighted Beethoven’s early-career, middle career and late-career stages.
Born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, the oldest of three boys, Beethoven worshipped his grandfather, Kogan said, also named Ludwig, but had very different feelings toward Johann, his alcoholic father. When his father came home drunk at midnight, he would wake up Beethoven and force him to practice until morning. Sometimes he abused him physically.
Beethoven moved to Vienna at 22 and began life as a freelance musician. He had no trouble being sponsored because of his talent. He was convinced of his greatness, so when he started showing signs of deafness in his 20s, he contemplated suicide.
Amazingly, according to Kogan, deafness helped Beethoven become a much greater composer. Beethoven, he added, became more isolated and couldn’t hear the music of others, so he was free to create sounds never heard before.
The Third Symphony, known as the Heroic Symphony, shocked the world with its vastness of scale and drama, Kogan said. During his middle career, Beethoven composed the Sonata in F Minor, which makes such technical demands on the performer that it was never played during his lifetime.
In the glorious final phase of his career when he was completely deaf, he composed the Ninth Symphony. Its expression is more personal, intimate and lyrical, Kogan said.
Beethoven had all sorts of serious ailments, such as cirrhosis of the liver, chronic renal failure, pancreatitis and severe abdominal pain. He died in 1827 at 56. His final words: “Applaud, my friends. The comedy is over.”
Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series that meets twice monthly September through June at Los Altos Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Ave. Subscriptions for the 2022-2023 season are now available. For membership details and more information, visit morningforum.org.
