2020Ludwig Van Beethoven's 250th Anniversary - First Day Cover

The place occupied by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) in the universal history of music is, in many aspects, completely unique. In him, the legacies of all the Baroque and Classical masters converge; with him, in an explosion of creativity, we see the emergence of the essence of musical Romanticism; and from him come many of the great lines that have de ned musical creation until today. Deeply committed to his time, in particular to the cause of the new ideas of liberty promoted by Enlightenment thinking and by the French Revolution, his role was decisive in a rming artistic dignity, artists’ need for creative independence and their ability to express the conscience, the desires and dreams of the community to which they belong.