Sunday Feature

In Dissecting Beethoven, Georgia Mann and eminent neurosurgeon Henry Marsh explore the story of Beethoven's health, starting with the results of Beethoven's autopsy, which revealed a liver `like leather, hard and bluish-green" and an abdominal cavity `filled with four measures of rust-coloured fluid". Georgia and Henry explore what might have been behind the bowel problems which tormented Beethoven for most of his adult life, could lead-laced wine have poisoned him? Why have some medics settled on the diagnosis of Syphilis, and what's behind the idea of Beethoven having an irregular heartbeat? The Brodsky Quartet play moments from Beethoven's string quartet output which reveal the bodily struggles he endured, and composer Richard Ayres reflects on how the psychological effects of Beethoven's hearing loss may also have played a part in the angst-ridden music he wrote.