world something to talk about.” Beethoven had
hoped to study with Mozart, but his trip was cut
short when Beethoven’s mother fell seriously ill,
and he had to return home.
At this time, Mozart and fellow Austrian Joseph
Haydn were the twin suns of the musical firma-
ment. Their music was the standard to aspire to,
yet it would also come to represent what had to be
transcended. The influential English music his-
torian Charles Burney spoke for many in the late
1700s when he wrote of music as the “art of pleas-
ing,”and its highest aim to transmit sweetness
and refinement. Beethoven’s work would later
help overturn this aesthetic standard.
Because his family relied on him for fi-
nancial support, the teenaged Beethoven
worked as a music teacher. His pupils
were often the children of the nobility,
including the cultured von Breuning
family. Expanding Beethoven’s social
networks, the von Breunings intro-
duced him to a family friend, the Count of
Waldstein, a Viennese aristocrat and mu-
sic lover. Impressed by Beethoven’s talent,the count later commissioned several works from
the composer.
The relationship with the count epitomizes the
compromise musicians had to make between their
ideals and their pocketbooks. In practical terms,
composers needed the support of aristocratic pa-
trons to fund the creation of their music, even if
they espoused democratic values.
In 1790 Beethoven met Joseph Haydn, who was
so impressed with the young musician that he of-
fered to take him on as a pupil in Vienna. Two years
later, Beethoven moved there, but he only studied a
short time with Haydn. In Vienna excellent social
connections with wealthy families enabled him
to earn a good living. One of the most important
of these was the music lover Prince Joseph Franz
Maximilian von Lobkowitz.Dawn of Revolution
Beethoven was 18 in the summer of 1789 when
astonishing news reached Bonn: The storming of
the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14 had ushered
in a new order based on revolutionary principles
of individual liberty and rights.FIRST
TEACHER
Christian Gottlob
Neefe (below) was
court composer of
the Archbishop-
Elector of Cologne,
and Ludwig van
Beethoven’s first
teacher. Beethoven-
Haus, BonnTHE HANDS
OF HAYDN
A
s a young performer in Bonn,
Beethoven was steeped in the
music of Joseph Haydn. The
Bonn elector library held more
than 100 scores by the Austrian. When
Beethoven met Haydn in 1790, it must
have felt like a brush with greatness. As
Beethoven prepared to move to Vienna, his
patron, Count Waldstein, assured him that
“[there] you will receive the spirit of Mozart
from the hands of Haydn.” After his arrival
in Vienna, the young German composer
took lessons with the maestro. Accord-
ing to some accounts, Beethoven chafed
at Haydn’s rigorous tasks, and secretly
took classes from other teachers. Even so,
his influence was considerable. The elder
composer taught him the expressive pos-
sibilities of the string quartet, a genre that
Beethoven later took in a direction that baf-
fled his contemporaries, and only became
widely appreciated in the 20th century.JOSEPH HAYDN IN A 1791 PORTRAIT BY ENGLISH PAINTER
THOMAS HARDY. ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, LONDON
ALBUMDEA/A
LBUM