Walter Meyer wondered:

>How out of date can a biography of Beethoven (who died in 1827 after
>having lived a relatively open life), which was revised in 1967, be? How
>much significant information on Beethoven could researchers have discovered
>in the last 34 years that had remained unknown for the previous 140?

Surprisingly quite a lot and not only about his life, but -actually much
more important- also about the music. See, for instance, the fact that
shortly it finally turned out that WoO.16, in Cooper's famous compendium
of 1990 (BTW, nice and instructive book about Beethoven, though not a
biography) still listed as a Beethoven composition, is not by Beethoven
(as far as I know the composer is unknown). But also concerning the life
there's still uncertainty about various important problems, like the riddle
of the Immortal Beloved. To this day the identity of the woman is unknown.
Oh yes, many fascinating hypotheses and speculations, but nobody who is
able to prove beyond any doubt one of those theories, not even Solomon.
Only a few months ago a completely new hypothesis for a completely new
candidate popped up. It was published in The Beethoven Journal.

Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven