Beethoven moved to the village of Heiligenstadt on doctor's orders in April 1802, hoping that a few months of peace and quiet might lead to an improvement in his hearing. He took with him sketches for the three op. 30 violin sonatas which he had begun the previous month, and in an extraordinary outpouring of creative energy completed them in May – a remarkable achievement, not least because he had to compose a new finale for the first of the three, the Sonata in A major, when he realized that the original Presto had outgrown itself. He was certainly right to do so, as it is twice as long as the first movement, five times as long as the second and altogether too brilliant as the finale for such a gentle work.

The following year, a far more suitable home was found for it as the third and last movement of the Kreutzer Sonata, discussed in the next chapter. The three sonatas were published in 1803 with a dedication to the young Tsar of Russia, Alexander I, whose apparently enlightened views Beethoven admired. In spite of his many worries, Beethoven's creativity never slackened during that fateful year. After completing the violin sonatas, he went on to compose the three innovatory piano sonatas, op. 31, between June and September, and in October he completed two sets of piano variations, including the Prometheus Variations, op. 35, which would soon provide inspiration for the Eroica Symphony.

The year of the Heiligenstadt Testament

Early that month, however, hopes of an improvement in his hearing turned to despair, movingly recorded in a letter known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, which he wrote to his brothers, but never sent. Two incidents which he described in the letter affected him deeply: ‘What a humiliation for me, when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back.’ It would be surprising if such feelings were not reflected in at least some of the music that Beethoven composed during those anxious months.