The man who composed some of the most mathematically complex music in history never learned to multiply or divide. To work out 16 times 7, Beethoven would write the number seven down 16 times and add up the column. This episode uses that detail as a lens on a life defined by relentless struggle and agonizing workarounds, moving past the scowling marble bust to the messy, deeply human story of a boy from Bonn who permanently altered the scale and emotional depth of Western music.

We begin with his alcoholic father Johann dragging him from bed to practice until dawn, lying about his age on posters in hopes of creating another Mozart, and the Von Breuning family who gave him the warmth and intellectual awakening his home lacked. In Vienna, Beethoven built his reputation through piano duels in aristocratic salons, snapping strings with the forc ...