The baton is raised on a major season dedicated to one the greatest musical heavyweights of all time - Ludwig van Beethoven.

Charles Hazlewood explores the music of Beethoven's prodigiously creative middle years, a period in which Napoleon's troops swept through Europe. With revolution in the air, Beethoven wrote five symphonies, four concertos and his only opera, Fidelio, which took its inspiration from the Napoleonic ideas of freedom, truth and equality.

Charles Hazlewood 's drama documentary reaches a crescendo with the final tragic years of the composer's life. While he continued to produce extraordinary works such as the Hammerklavier sonata, Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven's personal life was dominated by the bitter custody battle for his nephew Karl.