Outside Beethoven’s modest childhood home in Bonn, Germany.

LONG, delicate fingers moved swiftly along the keys of a grand piano as the grey-haired man in a long, black coat swayed in time with the music. With sharp but cold eyes, the man in his 50s looked so absorbed in the moment that he had completely shut out his surroundings.

The tender melody suddenly became loud and dynamic and awakened me from my daydream.

I was standing in front of an old piano in the modest house of world famous composer and pianist Ludwig Von Beethoven in Bonn, Germany. In a corner of the dimly lit room stood a CD player blaring his famous masterpieces. It was easy to imagine him sitting there hunched over, eyes closed, full of energy and concentration.

Having been brought up in an Asian country thousands of miles away from the birthplace of Beethoven, I had never even dreamed of visiting the house of such a historically influential person, but, by a stroke of luck, I had been invited by the German Embassy in Yangon to attend a media conference in Bonn.

On arrival in Germany, I made a beeline for the house. Grabbing a map on my way out, I left the hotel, which turned out to be a 10-minute walk from Beethoven’s former residence.

The three-storey house, featured a dark green wooden door, looked solitary and insignificant. As I pushed open the creaking door I saw a friendly woman, to whom I handed a five-euro note for entry into the tiny apartment that Beethoven had once occupied as a child.

On the first floor, portraits of his family members hung on the wall next to violins and music notes.

The pianist had been deeply etched in my mind since my secondary school years, not because of his acclaimed music, but because of his amazing ability to play the piano while suffering from deafness.

His discarded hearing aid sat on display, recalling the period of his youth when he began to realise that he was suffering from an incurable loss of hearing. How hard it must have been for a man who dedicated his life to music to be unable to hear what he had created and the applause his audience so graciously gave.

Although Beethoven spent most of his time in Vienna, Austria, after he became famous, which was also where he died at the age of 56, his largest collection of musical instruments, notes and personal belongings were at this house, now a museum. This was the place a legend was born more than 230 years ago and where he spent his childhood being woken by a drunk father at ungodly hours to practise the piano until dawn. Walking around his bedroom, I wondered whether he was grateful for this or if he resented his father’s unruly ways of parenting.

The cramped room reminded me of a great Myanmar composer and soldier. His poem Meza depicted the life of a man alone in the jungle and was presented to the King. It eventually eased his anger, leading him to free the poet.

As my visit ended, I realised that the talents of these two men were not restricted to their ability to create beautiful pieces of art, but also included an ability to create it while enduring the worst that life can deal out.

I took one last look at Beethoven’s weathered piano and dragged myself to the doorway, whispering goodbye to the spirit of the Master of Music.