BBC Music February 2020

To kickstart the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, we look at 250 reasons to celebrate the trailblazing composer, from his triumphant premieres to his personal tragedies and everything in between. Investigating the politics of representation and access in the world of classical music, Andrew Stewart reports on the success of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain’s peer-to-peer mentorship scheme, while Richard Morrison examines the personal and political struggles faced by Beethoven in his own time.