Beethoven was viewed as the natural musical heir to Haydn and Mozart, but he became far more than that, pushing beyond known boundaries to create music of revolutionary power.
Beethoven was 18 when the French Revolution started in 1789. He was still living in his native Bonn, where he was steadily building a reputation as a musical all-rounder, playing keyboard continuo for the Bonn opera and viola for the theatre orchestra. But it was at the piano that he really shone, where he created a sensation with his effortless improvisations. He was taken up by an aristocratic widow, Mme von Breuning, and through her he acquired a number of wealthy piano pupils. Also through Mme von Breuning he was introduced to Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, a very senior and influential member of the Austrian nobility.
Beethoven in Vienna
The Waldstein connection paid dividends in 1792, when Beethoven decided to take up a long-standing invitation to go to Vienna to study under Haydn, but their relationship never really got off the ground. Beethoven found that Count von Waldstein had been promoting him as the new Mozart, who had died just the year before. Through the Count, Beethoven gained other enthusiastic patrons, giving him a great start in the music capital.
An original force
After his first concert in 1795, the Viennese public grew steadily more impressed by the depth and originality of his piano compositions allied to his masterly stage performances. In 1800 he was poised to enter the second period of his career – in which he would transform the musical landscape in one of the greatest achievements in the history of artistic creation. Miraculously, he would do so while waging his long, lonely war with deafness. In the early years of the new century, against the background noise of Napoleon’s armies in Europe, Beethoven composed his remaining symphonies, string quartets, a stream of piano sonatas, a peerless violin concerto and his only opera, Fidelio. In all of these works he demonstrated an absolute mastery of musical form, which enabled him to explore the depths of his humanity.
Financial stability
During this time too he stubbornly supported himself without an official position. His soaring reputation enabled him to publish his scores profitably, while his patrons were happy to pay substantial sums for a dedication, and to provide an allowance for Vienna’s revered and much-loved adopted son.