INSIDE THE HEARING MACHINE
BEETHOVEN ON HIS BROADWOOD

Piano Sonatas Opus 109, 110 and 111

TOM BEGHIN

“You do hear better when you bring your head under this machine, don’t you?,” André Stein asked Beethoven, in reference to the Gehörmaschine he had built in 1820 to go on top of Beethoven’s Broadwood piano. Two centuries later, we too can bring our heads under the machine and wonder: Do we hear Beethoven differently? This recording invites us inside the hearing machine—the multisensory playground of the deaf composer for whom the machine was more than a mere hearing aid.

Essays

Read the accompanying essays by Robin Wallace, Tom Beghin, Thomas Wulfrank and Martha de Francisco.

video

View performances of Op. 109, 110, and 111.

View six demonstrations at the piano.