I was somewhat disappointed with the Mozart episode after I watched this one. I enjoy Mozart's music more than Beethoven's, but this 'In Search Of...' was geared much more towards the classical music fan. The music played here is exhaustive. If I had to guess, I'd say they play over 50 tunes written by Beethoven. If you're looking for more of a biography you probably want to look at a more focused documentary in conjunction with this one. For me, who is ten times more interested in the music, this show was perfect! They use very talented players and list the players on the screen which is nice if you want to explore today's classical music performers. Ludwig had a fairly long life that was presented here as being pretty depressing. Mentions of suicide, illness and of course deafness are peppered throughout the documentary. He only created maybe half as many works as his contemporaries like Mozart or Haydn, but they present a nice case for crowning Herr Beethoven as the king of all Western music (personally, I'd put him at number 3 on that list).
Review of In Search of Beethoven
