Beethoven’s life was dogged by ill health and romantic failure, and his Seventh Symphony was written while he was suffering through both. Not that you’d guess as much from the music, made to sound effortless by an artist at the peak of his powers. Beethoven knew it, too – he rated it one of his finest works. As counterweights to its life and energy, two works marking lost lives: a cantata written when Beethoven was just 19, and a funeral march inspired by a female soldier who, disguised as a man, joined the Prussian army and was killed fighting the forces of Napoleon.