The catalogue of classical music is massive. It’s hard to know where to start. Over the past couple of years I have been listening on and off to pieces in a mostly random way. But I still really didn’t know anything about them, or about their composers. As part of this journey into the classical world I’ve decided to immerse myself in a different composer every month. Each week of that month I’ll look at a popular or interesting piece and the story around it. It’ll be their story and my story.

June’s composer is probably the most well-known among the popular music world. He’s claimed to have had a massive influence on the composers who came after him and also to have changed the way the public viewed the function of music.

Ludwig van Beethoven