https://www.musical-u.com/learn/exploring-classical-music-the-romantic-era-part-2/
The Romantic Era of the Western classical tradition, corresponding roughly to the 1800s, represented a radical shift in how composers saw themselves.
Following in the footsteps of Beethoven, composers obliged their burgeoning middle-class audiences by cultivating their larger-than-life heroic personas, prefiguring today’s rock stars.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/exploring-classical-music-the-romantic-era-part-2/