Despite Beethoven's traditional status as the first great Romantic composer, he is considered by some musicologists to be the last great composer of the Classical era.
A Despite Beethoven's traditional status as the first great Romantic composer, he is considered by some musicologists to be the last great composer of the Classical era.
B Despite Beethoven's traditional status as the first great Romantic composer, he is considered the last great composer of the Classical era by some musicologists.
C Although his status is traditionally as the first great Romantic composer, Beethoven is considered as being the last great composer of the Classical era by some musicologists.
D Despite his traditional status as the first great Romantic composer, Beethoven is considered the last great composer of the Classical era by some musicologists.
E Although he is traditionally considered to be the first great Romantic composer, some musicologists consider Beethoven as the last great composer of the Classical era.

The original sentence contains several errors. First, the pronoun "he" has no antecedent. It is meant to refer to Beethoven, yet Beethoven himself does not appear in the sentence. Instead, we have "Beethoven's traditional status." Second, the verb "to consider" should not be followed by "to be." The correct form of the idiom is "X is considered Y," not "X is considered to be Y."


(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) The idiom is correct here ("he is considered the last great composer..."), but the pronoun is not; the pronoun "he" has no antecedent. It is meant to refer to Beethoven, yet Beethoven himself does not appear in the sentence. Instead, we have "Beethoven's traditional status."

(C) The pronoun issue is corrected here: "his status" replaces "Beethoven's traditional status" and "Beethoven" replaces "he." However, the idiom "considered as being the last great composer" is not correct; "as being" is not needed. The correct form of the idiom is "X is considered Y," not "X is considered as being Y."

(D) CORRECT. The pronoun issue is corrected here: "his traditional status" replaces "Beethoven's traditional status" and "Beethoven" replaces "he." The idiom is also correct here: "Beethoven is considered the last great composer..."

(E) The pronoun issue is corrected here: "he" refers clearly to "Beethoven." However, "he is considered to be the first great Romantic composer" and "consider Beethoven as the last great composer" are both unidiomatic. The correct forms of the idiom are "X is considered Y" and "consider X Y": "he is considered the first great Romantic composer" and "consider Beethoven the last great composer."