As the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death approaches in 2027, this seems an appropriate time to think about the composer's reputation, in history and today. This seminar focuses on Beethoven's chamber music, exploring the continuities and contrasts between the way his works were originally performed and understood and how they are interpreted today.

Laura Tunbridge is Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. She studied at Oxford, Nottingham and Princeton then taught at the Universities of Reading and Manchester before moving to Oxford in 2014.

Recent publications include Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces (2020) and the co-edited essay collections German Song Onstage (2020) and Song Beyond the Nation ( 2021); her current research examines the performance of string quartets from the mid twentieth century onwards. In 2021, Laura was elected a Fellow of the British Academy and awarded the Dent Medal from the RMA/IMS.