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Published: Saturday, 28 September 2024 at 09:00 AM


Love, requited or otherwise, was a huge inspiration for many of our greatest composers. We take a look at some of the most inspiring romantic couples in classical music…

Ludwig van Beethoven & Countess Josephine von Brunsvik

Though Beethoven never married, he was desperately in love with Countess Josephine von Brunsvik for much of his life. They met in 1799 when Beethoven began working as Josephine’s piano tutor. Despite some affection on Josephine’s side, her family quickly married her off to the far more eligible (and much older) Joseph Count Deym.

It is thought that Josephine was the ‘Immortal Beloved’ to whom Beethoven refers in his famous letter, now held by the British Library, in which Beethoven feverishly writes of his longing for his ‘angel’. ‘An die Hoffnung’ (To Hope) was secretly dedicated to Josephine, and the piano work Andante favori is also thought to have inspired by his love for her.

Music’s great romantic couples… Richard Wagner & Cosima Liszt

Cosima, daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt, first met Wagner while on honeymoon with her first husband, Hans von Bülow. It was while sharing conducting duties with von Bülow at a concert in Leipzig that Wagner was ‘utterly transported by the sight of Cosima’. Though they were both still married, they began a relationship, and Cosima gave birth to two daughters that Bülow accepted as his own. Bülow and Cosima finally divorced in 1870, and Cosima and Wagner were married later that year.

The most famous work Wagner wrote for his adored wife was the ‘Symphonic Birthday Greeting’ (later known as the Siegfried Idyll), which he composed for her birthday in 1870, only months after they were married. Cosima was Wagner’s artistic partner for the duration of their marriage and, after his death in 1883, maintained his legacy as director of the theatre at Bayreuth.