Beethoven Is More Intimate Than Ever in New Poems Ruth Padel tells the great composer’s life story, more profoundly than most biographies, in “Beethoven Variations.” Ruth Padel at home in London. Her Beethoven poems are informed by her lifelong immersion in music.Credit...Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York Times May 21, 2021, 10:27 a.m. ET Though much is known about Beethoven, whole swaths of his life remain elusive. His deafness, for one thing. He started experiencing hearing loss before he was 30. But how extensive was the initial problem? How quickly did it worsen? It’s not clear. His most revealing words on the subject come in a letter he wrote (though never sent) to his brothers in 1802, while seeking isolation and resting his ears in Heiligenstadt, on the outskirts of Vienna. In the Heiligenstadt Testament, as it became known, his fear comes through poignantly. But what did it feel like to go deaf? What sensations did he experience? What did music sound like to him?