Ludwig van Beethoven, (baptized December 17, 1770, Bonn, archbishopric of Cologne [Germany]—died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria), German composer, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras.

Composer Franz Schubert received a thorough musical education and won a scholarship to boarding school. Although he was never rich, the composer’s work gained recognition and popularity, noted for bridging classical and romantic composition. He died in 1828 in Vienna, Austria.

But according to press notes for Agnieszka Holland’s “Copying Beethoven,” the soulful amanuensis and self-appointed emotional advisor to the great composer is a “fictional character based on actual persons.” So she’s as free to be as anachronistic as she wants to be. …

Filmed primarily in soundstages and on location in Budapest, the film is also disappointingly confined to cramped rooms. Perhaps the director was trying to convey the lifestyle of hermit Beethoven; still, the film gives no impression of actually occurring in Vienna.

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The original dog playing Beethoven was only in the first two movies. He is no longer alive but some of the dogs in the later films likely are. His real name was Chris, owned and trained by Karl Lewis Miller who also trained animals for Cujo, K-9, Babe, and many others.

Bernards, and Beethoven was played by two dogs. In addition to the real dogs, a full mechanical dog was used, and at times a man in a St. Bernard suit was also used.

Some historians, however, are skeptical that Mozart and Beethoven met at all. Moreover, Mozart already had a pupil living in his home, the nine-year-old Johann Nepomuk Hummel. While it cannot be determined whether Beethoven actually met Mozart, it is more probable that he heard Mozart play.