Barely a week after premiering his 6th symphony, he drank contaminated water and died of cholera (possibly a suicidal act)

As he succumbed to tuberculosis, he complained that his ex-girlfriend George Sand was not there to hold him.

Died young, unable to complete his Requiem

Asked to be taken to a mental asylum; his wife Clara visited before he died

Went blind, but “saw” a few of his many sons become prominent composers

Needed years of therapy with Nikolai Dahl after the disastrous reception of his first symphony (rebounded with his Piano Concerto no. 2)

Daughter died, ironically only a few years after he had composed 'Kindertotenlieder' (Songs on the death of Children)

His Piano Concerto no. 2 was lost in a fire (in 1918) and the orchestral part had to be completely rewritten

Still young, he had to support himself by playing piano in seedy Hamburg brothels

Chronic, fatal alcoholism, encouraged partly by the sudden death of his artist friend Hartmann, in whose memory he had composed Pictures at an Exhibition

Wrote a letter to his brothers, the Heiligenstadt Testament, in which he discussed deafness and contemplated suicide

Investigated by the FBI, accused of being a Communist, and was for a time blacklisted

between 1838 and 1840, while working on his first operas, both his children and his wife died.

died at age 31 and had asked to be buried beside his hero Beethoven (both had composed nine symphonies)

While leading a concert in honour of Louis XIV, he accidentally hit his foot with a conducting stick. It became gangrenous and he died

not only was his atonal serial music denounced as 'degenerate' by the Nazis, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier

within a few years of seeing his opera 'Porgy and Bess' fail at the box office, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour

a painful throat cancer took his life, leaving his opera 'Turandot' unfinished

His marriage to a princess was thwarted, a son died, then a daughter, and he gave up his rock star piano performances to join the Franciscan Order.

Exiled from Germany with little money and a wife suffering from depression, he had to beg to get 'Lohengrin' performed