Young Beethoven

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1996

Sculptor: Joan Coderch

Size (cm): 24*23

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

Your attention is invited to an interesting, in my opinion, figure of the young Ludwig van Beethoven, a brilliant German and Austrian composer and pianist. This is the third such work by Spanish porcelain sculptors in a series dedicated to young geniuses. True, it was the first one in our collection. And it appeared under very unusual circumstances.

I managed to find and purchase this composition in Rome during a trip with fellow editors who covered the first state visit of the Ukrainian president to Italy. I have been fascinated by Beethoven's music for a long time. But he did not expect to meet a porcelain work dedicated to him, created by the masters of the Spanish manufactory, in the Italian capital.

In this work, Beethoven is captured at an age when composer's fame was still unknown to him. Although he was already quite successful in writing. This period includes the writing of three sonatas and several songs, among which the song "Marmot" that has become popular.

After the death of his mother, becoming, at the age of 17, the head of the family and taking care of his younger brothers, Ludwig devoted more time to working in the orchestra, and then to solo performances, which he was soon allowed to talk about himself as a brilliant virtuoso pianist. True, almost at the same time he created the famous "Song of a Free Man" (in which there are the words: "He is free for whom the advantages of birth and title mean nothing"). And soon, already rapidly losing his hearing and painfully experiencing it, he took a great interest in processing (few people know about this) Russian and Ukrainian folk songs...

However, the history of the acquisition of this figurine has nothing to do with music. I bought it in a large souvenir shop in the center of Rome, not forgetting to stock up on various gifts for my Kyiv friends. Among the souvenirs bought were beautiful lighters in the form of pistols and grenades. Having handed over personal belongings in luggage, we waited for the arrival of the president, and then the team for departure. The plane was already quietly heading for the runway, when it was suddenly stopped by jeeps of armed carabinieri, who were accompanied by a car of explosives experts and an ambulance.

When I heard that “senior Shvets” needed to leave the Ukrainian plane and slowly, keeping his hands in sight, go down the ladder that had arrived, I was in a state of shock. Right in front of me on the concrete stood my modest suitcase, on which the carabinieri machine guns were aimed. I opened it with trembling hands. It is clear why. Familiar faces were easily recognizable through the portholes, expressing an extreme degree of surprise.

First he took out a small box of Beethoven. Then "grenades" ... Ah, that's it! ..

During the return flight to Kyiv, there were only talks about my "smuggling". By the way, then, after checking the effect of these lighters, fashionable at that time, they returned them to me and allowed me to send them back to my luggage.