books.guardian.co.uk review
By the mid-1810s, as deafness encroached, the performing was all over. Visitors found his pianos had strings shredded by his frantic pounding in a desperation to hear. He removed the legs from one piano, so he could sit on the floor and feel the vibrations. Yet to the end he would improvise for hours, though he could not hear a note he played. The image is heartbreaking, and revealing. He still needed the instrument. Improvisation at the keyboard was wedded to his inspiration. And this was one of the secrets of how Beethoven managed to compose when he was all but stone deaf. As he played his pianos, which were wildly out of tune and with missing strings, he heard the music through his fingers.
