In 1806, Carl Maria von Weber accidentally drank nitric acid used for engraving, mistaking it for wine. The near-fatal mishap left his vocal cords damaged for life. A year later, entangled in his father’s catastrophic debts, he was arrested for embezzlement and banished from Württemberg. Yet, out of this chaotic crucible in his early twenties, the German composer forged his Piano Quartet in B-flat major — a daring work that helped lay the groundwork for Early Romanticism. Nearly four decades later, Felix Mendelssohn found himself consumed by a different kind of anguish. Plunged into severe depression following the sudden stroke and death of his sister and musical confidante, Fanny, Mendelssohn struggled to regain his footing. Writing to his sister Rebecka while recovering in Switzerland in 1847, he confessed his desperate attempt to force himself back into his craft: "I am trying to be industrious, in the hope that I may once more find some interest and pleasure in work." That search for solace yielded his final completed masterpiece, the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor. A stark d