Hello, I’m Times music critic Mark Swed, this week giving our irreplaceable Carolina A. Miranda a break before Christmas as we keep arts essential. I’m here just in time to point out that this week our most essential composer, Ludwig van Beethoven — unless you care to call him Louis van Beethoven, as a new German biopic does — marks what would have been his 250th birthday. So Beethoven is where we’ll start. A sculpture of Beethoven in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. (Martin Meissner / Associated Press) Music for our times In his review of the German TV film, Times contributor Robert Abele found it “elegantly tailored” but “never exactly stirring,” which sounds more Louis-like than the Ludwig we all know. I haven’t seen it because I’ve been too busy trying to catch up with all the other things Beethoven. It’s been a full plate. But then, the Beethoven plate is always full. No matter where you are, no matter what you listen to, Beethoven molecules might be in the ether.