As for Beethoven, has any composer in history been shrouded in so much myth? To the extent that his music is routinely explained by, and appreciated for, the state in which he wrote it. This is especially true of his final works — the Ninth Symphony and late string quartets — attributed as they are to a tormented genius: a totally deaf, increasingly ill Beethoven, bitterly at odds with his nephew and sole heir, Karl. The legend goes that, forced to inhabit his own private aural universe, he was inspired to produce music of such profundity that it has never been matched.

Ludwig van Beethoven

The Christie’s sale includes a late, autograph manuscript by the composer, dated to 1825, two years before his death. It’s a two-side leaf taken from one of his notebooks: on one side it boasts early sketches for the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132; on the other, a set of notes relating to the Ninth Symphony, Op. 125, listing instrumental parts for viola, second violin, bassoon, horn and flutes.

‘Beethoven’s manuscript scores are as messy and knotty as his character was’ John Allison, Opera magazine