Fired by ambitions to turn his gifted son into a second Mozart, Johann van Beethoven would keep him slaving at the piano all night, raining blows on him when he made a mistake. Young Ludwig was an ...

On March 27, 1827, the day after Ludwig van Beethoven's death, his associates uncovered a hidden trove of documents in his desk. Among them was the Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written in 1802 to ...