It is 1802, and realizing that he has become irreversibly deaf, Beethoven is going through a personal crisis of unprecedented intensity. Mulling suicide in his Heiligenstadt hideaway, he decides however to confront his destiny, and the works he produces in that crucial year reflect this evolution that is a path towards hope. This is what Jonas Vitaud demonstrates with brio through a choice of works putting into perspective the underlying despair of the Tempest’ Sonata, the calming of Op. 33 and 34, and the flamboyant optimism of the ‘Eroica’ Variations.