Romanticism is one of those useful umbrella terms that covers not only our personal predilections – candle lit dinners, happy endings – but also that great swath of artistic endeavor that embraced thinking, literature, art, and music from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. The first whispers of Romanticism came with the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement, which emphasized individual subjectivity and emotion – as opposed to the rationalism of Classicism during the Enlightenment. Even sunny Josef Haydn had a Sturm und Drang period, with his minor key Symphony No. 45, the “Farewell” symphony, being the most famous example.

The first composer to be labeled “Romantic” was the Frenchman, Étienne Nicolas Méhul, who was an important opera composer in France during the Revolution. But it was German poetry, drama, legend, and love of transcendental that put German-speaking countries at the heart of early Romanticism – and the crossover in music happens with Ludwig von Beethoven.

In Beethoven’s early period you can already hear that he was striving for a different impression from Mozart and Haydn. There is an assertive, even aggressive, quality that is famously present in, for instance, his Pathétique Sonata, No 8. The 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament that Beethoven wrote to his two brothers ushers in his “heroic” second period...

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