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Donald Macleod explores Beethoven's letters, read by Adrian Lester. Today, Beethoven writes to his friend and patron Archduke Rudolph on some musical matters and does his utmost to rope in Nanette Streicher to help him a particularly acrimonious falling-out with his servants.

More than 1,770 of Beethoven's letters still survive and, this week, Donald Macleod delves into five different areas of this extensive collection. Today, he looks at two contrasting series of letters, between Beethoven and his loyal patron and friend Archduke Rudolph and the piano maker Nanette Streicher. The Archduke seems to have genuinely liked and respected Beethoven, and for his part Beethoven seems to have been equally fond of his patron. He dedicated many of his best-known works to the Archduke, among them the piano trio that popularly bears the Archduke's name, the Les Adieux piano sonata, the Diabelli variations and the Missa solemnis. As well as being part of the triumvirate that provided an annual stipend to Beethoven, the Archduke was very musical. He took piano lessons with Beethoven and in one letter we find Beethoven offering him some advice on his composition. By contrast, Nanette Streicher owned and ran a successful piano making firm with her husband Johann. As an old acquaintance of Beethoven's, she became something of an adviser to him on all sorts of domestic issues. In his letters to Nanette, Beethoven, in the most insulting terms imaginable, angrily details every perceived outrage committed by his troublesome servants.

Music includes:

March for Military Music in F major, WoO 18 'York March'
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble
Hans Priem-Bergrath, conductor

Piano Trio No 7 in B flat major, Op 97 'Archduke'
II: Scherzo
Beaux Arts Trio

Cello Sonata No 3 in A major, Op 69
III: Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace
Leonard Elschenbroich, cello
Alexei Grynyuk, piano

Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major, Op 73 'Emperor'
3rd movement: Rondo allegro ma non troppo
Stephen Hough, piano
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Hannu Lintu, conductor