Beethoven as Bacchus

By

Ron Merlino

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Volume 05, Then & Now •
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On the dark morning of March 26, 1827, a heavy snowstorm was falling outside the fogged window panes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Vienna apartment. Everything was unusually quiet in this space, so customarily filled with music. Beethoven’s house servant walked into the room to announce that a long-awaited shipment of Rheingau Rieslings, wines sent at his behest by his music publisher Schott, had just arrived. Barely able to muster the energy, the composer sat up in his bed, shook his fist in anger, and muttered these very last words: “Pity, pity, it’s too late…”     He sank back into his bed,…

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Ron Merlino is a certified sommelier, and owner and manager of MusicVine Performing Arts and Wine Consulting. He is at work on an extensive history of wine in the lives of the great Viennese composers from the 18th to the early 20th century — from Mozart and Haydn through Beethoven and Schubert to Brahms, Mahler and beyond. Ron is developing a televised series on wine and the great composers of Germany with MDR Radio and Television Leipzig and is a contributor to BBC Radio 3. He is also collaborating with the Beethoven Haus Bonn in Germany on an extended project highlighting the narrative of wine in Beethoven’s life. BBC Radio 3 and the National Symphony Orchestra of Wales hosted a live event with him on Beethoven and his wines in January 2020. Prior to his professional work as an artist manager, Ron served as Director of Artistic Planning for the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in addition to positions on the artistic staffs of the Baltimore Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

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