Beethoven and Other Composers and Musicians Part III
This is a third part to my list. I decided not to do this as a reblog and instead as its own separate post. I did not have much information for some of these people, so if anyone has any more information, please let me know! If there are any errors, also let me know!
Antonio Salieri - Composer
(https://images.app.goo.gl/HVgrWNkLJ2jWNHZx7)
Salieri was one of Beethoven’s teachers. Beethoven wanted to study with him mainly vocal composition.
Beethoven did not believe Salieri killed Mozart as rumors spread about Salieri’s possible, but highly unlikely, involvement in Mozart’s death. He knew his former teacher well so he did not believe in the rumors that were being spread.
Beethoven’s third violin sonata was dedicated to Salieri.
Beethoven composed variations on Salieri’s themes.
Beethoven asked Salieri to look over his score for Fidelio. Salieri gave him some recommendations, but Beethoven just kept the piece the same.
Beethoven complained about Salieri's presentation of a charity concert that played some of Beethoven’s music. Beethoven said, "Herr Salieri, being my most active opponent, played me a horrible trick"
Salieri was very anti-German. Beethoven made this ironic remark about him. He said, "Salieri, the Court Kapellmeister, who is all-powerful at court and a patriarch of his good intentions for German vocal music and German singers"
Salieri was at the performance of Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory. Beethoven wrote a letter to the Wiener Zeitung thanking everyone involved with the performance including “a certain Kapellmeister, Salieri by name, who did not disdain to give the beat to the drums and cannonades”
Beethoven was very concerned about Salieri when Salieri was on his deathbed.
Beethoven liked joining in on gossip about Salieri’s unmarried daughters. (Any info on what the gossip was on?)
(https://images.app.goo.gl/jFh4C8jtagdjFpwH9)
Beethoven’s friend Ferdinand Ries said this, “I knew [all of Beethoven’s teachers] well; all three valued Beethoven highly, but were also of one mind touching his habits of study. All of them said Beethoven was so headstrong and self-sufficient (selbstwollend) that he had to learn much through harsh experience which he had refused to accept that when it was presented to him as a subject of study.”
Salieri directed a benefit concert and allowed Beethoven to play one of his piano concertos at in March 1795.
Salieri conducted Beethoven’s music very often.
(Does anyone have any quotes from Salieri about Beethoven? Thanks in advance!)
Carl Maria von Weber - Composer, Pianist, Guitarist
(https://images.app.goo.gl/4zxnk48Yo5cGmNik8)
Beethoven respected Weber, however he did not like his music as much as he liked Cherubini’s music.
Beethoven’s opinion on Weber was originally negative, but he changed his opinions on him after Weber wrote his opera “Der Freischütz.”
Beethoven said, “Weber must now write operas, nothing but operas.”
Beethoven said that Weber was a “poor weak little mannikin.”
(https://images.app.goo.gl/1Xa4dzESjs18wgh59)
Weber said that Beethoven was “ripe for the madhouse.”
Weber published this satire about Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, “I have just come from the rehearsal of a Symphony by one of our newest composers; and though, as you know, I have a tolerably strong constitution, I could only just hold out, and five minutes more would have shattered my frame and burst the sinews of my life. I have been made to caper about like a wild goat, and to turn myself into a mere fiddle to execute the no-ideas of Mr. Composer… The first violoncello (bathed in perspiration) says that for his part he is too tired to speak, and can recollect nothing like the warming he has had since he played in Cherubini’s last opera. The second violoncello is of opinion that the Symphony is a musical monstrosity, revolting alike to the nature of the instruments and the expression of thought, and with no intention whatever but that of mere show-off… First a slow movement full of short disjointed unconnected ideas, at the rate of three or four notes per quarter of an hour; then a mysterious roll of the drum and passage of the violas, seasoned with the proper quantity of pauses and ritardandos; and to end all a furious finale, in which the only requisite is that there should be no ideas for the hearer to make out, but plenty of transitions from one key to another—on to the new note at once! Never mind modulating!—above all things, throw rules to the winds, for they only hamper a genius.”
Weber eventually began to like Beethoven’s music. He started to play and conduct it.
Beethoven asked Julius Benedict to invite Weber to meet him at Baden when Weber was in Vienna. Weber accepted the invitation. Weber wrote, “[Beethoven] received me with the most touching affection; he embraced me at least six or seven times in the heartiest fashion and finally, full of enthusiasm, cried: ‘Yes, you are a devil of a fellow, a fine fellow!’”
Weber said this on how Beethoven treated him when they met, “We spent the noon hour together, very merrily and happily. This rough man actually paid court to me, served me at table carefully as though I were his lady, etc.“
Weber visited Beethoven in 1823 and asked him to look at the score of his opera Euryanthe. He wanted Beethoven to give him corrections in order to “redeem it from the unfortunate reception that its first performance had elicited.” Beethoven refused to look at it and said that the revisions should have been made before the opera had been performed.
Weber performed Beethoven’s Fidelio in Prague in 1814 and in Dresden in 1823.
Muzio Clementi - Composer, Pianist, Publisher, Piano Manufacturer
(https://images.app.goo.gl/WMoGX2VjD7vq9oiC6)
Beethoven said, “They who thoroughly study Clementi, at the same time make themselves acquainted with Mozart and other composers; but the converse is not the fact.”
Both of them ate at the same restaurant in Vienna called “The Swan.” They saw each other there, but never really interacted despite both of them liking each other’s music.
Beethoven’s themes in his music sometimes resemble those of Clementi’s. Some biographers of Clementi have pointed this out.
Beethoven loved Clementi’s sonatas and sonatinas. He even wanted his nephew Karl to play the pieces. According to Anton Schindler, “[Beethoven] had the greatest admiration for these sonatas, considering them the most beautiful, the most pianistic of works, both for their lovely, pleasing, original melodies and for the consistent, easily followed form of each movement. The musical education of his beloved nephew was confined for many years almost exclusively to the playing of clementi sonatas.”
Schindler also had this to say, “Among all the masters who have written for piano, Beethoven assigned to clementi the very foremost rank. He considered his works excellent as studies for practice, for the formation of a pure taste, and as truly beautiful subjects for performance.”
(https://images.app.goo.gl/MHv5ErKa8hRejqUQ9)
Clementi was a music publisher in London. He helped Beethoven spread his music to English audiences.
(If anyone has any more info and could give it to me, it would be greatly appreciated!)
Johann Sedlatzek/Sedlaczek - Flautist
Beethoven called Sedlatzek “a most distinguished artist.”
In a letter to Rodophle Kreutzer, he wrote, “To Monsieur Kreutzer,
Sir! This is with hope that you favor your old friend, I dare to recommend to you the bearer of this letter, Monsieur Sedlatzek, a most distinguished Artist, and am begging you not to refuse him ... I take this time to testify my friendship and perpetual consideration. Sir!
Your very humble servant, L v. B”
In a letter to Cherubini, Beethoven wrote, “To Monsieur Cherubini,
Sir! The bearer of this letter, Monsieur Sedlatzek, ardently desires to pay you his tribute. I am convinced of his esteem as an Artist worthy of my name, and hope for a favorable welcome from you. Accept him with the highest assurance and the same consideration with which I have been honored. Sir!
Your very humble servant, L v. B”
Beethoven had Sedlatzek as his principal flautist at the premier of his 9th symphony.
Sedlatzek was one of Beethoven’s closest friends. He was apart of his inner circle that also included Czerny, Lincke, Schlesinger, and Schuppanzigh.
(https://images.app.goo.gl/aehYyQKzGweJVSnPA)
Sedlatzek had played Beethoven’s music. As I mentioned earlier, he was the principal flautist for Beethoven’s premier of the ninth symphony.
Sedlatzek visited Beethoven’s house on September 11, 1825. The conductor Sir George Thomas Smart wrote, “... most of the company departed [after the performance], but Schlesinger invited me to stop and dine with the following party of ten. Beethoven, his nephew (Karl), Holz, Weiss, C. Czerny, who sat at the bottom of the table, Lincke, Jean Sedlatzek- a flute player who is coming to England next year and has letters from the Duke of Devonshire, Count St. Antonio, etc.- he has been to Italy- Schlesinger, Schuppanzigh, who sat at the top, and myself.”
Sedlatzek died in 1866 and was buried next to Beethoven.
(More info would be appreciated! Quotes are especially needed.)
Niccolò Paganini - Violinist, Violist, Guitarist, Composer
According to Eric Schissel, Paganini and Beethoven had corresponded. (Any more info on this?)
Despite being his contemporary, the two never met in real life.
Wikipedia says that Beethoven “had well-known fallings out with [it lists some people like Haydn] and the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini.” (Does anyone have any information on this? I would greatly appreciate it.)
(https://images.app.goo.gl/aehYyQKzGweJVSnPA )
Paganini wanted to go to Vienna to commission a piece from Beethoven, but by time he arrived to do so, Beethoven was dead.
Paganini also wanted to purchase all of Beethoven’s string quartets before going to Vienna.
Paganini studied Beethoven’s music a great deal and had loved it very much.
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Part I (Cherubini, Haydn, Hummel, Mozart)
Part II (Schubert, Rossini)
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What composers and/or musicians would you like to see added to this list? I’ll do another part featuring more of Beethoven’s contemporaries. I’ll also do another part featuring Beethoven’s opinions on his predecessors and one about his successors’ opinions on him (Which one would you like to see first? Predecessors or successors?).
I’ll move on to another composer soon. If there are any that you are dying to see, tell me and I’ll write about them first!
BBC Magazine. Weber, Carl Maria von. Classical Music, 29 May 2012. https://www.classical-music.com/composers/carl-maria-von-weber/
Beethoven 250: A visit with Carl Maria von Weber. CSO SOUNDS & STORIES, 24 March 2020. https://csosoundsandstories.org/beethoven-250-a-visit-with-carl-maria-von-weber/
Caeyers, Jan. Beethoven A Life. University of California, 2009.
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) - Stahlstich von Carl Mayer, Nürnberg, wohl nach einem Gemälde von Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein aus dem Jahr 1823, erschienen bei Schuberth und Niemeyer in Hamburg und Itzehoe, um 1830. B 1378, Beethoven-Haus Bonn. https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5785332414939136/Carl+Maria+von+Weber+%281786-1826%29+-+Stahlstich+von+Carl+Mayer%2C+N%C3%BCrnberg%2C+wohl+nach+einem+Gem%C3%A4lde+von+Carl+Christian+Vogel+von+Vogelstein+aus+dem+Jahr+1823%2C+erschienen+bei+Schuberth+und+Niemeyer+in+Hamburg+und+Itzehoe%2C+um+1830?fromArchive=4886601146564608
de Saint-Foix, Georges and M. D. Herter Norton. Clementi, Forerunner to Beethoven. Oxford University Press, 1931.
“Insignificant Moments in History: Beethoven Meets Clementi.” Youtube, Soundfly, 22 December 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQBNUHzeCG4
Lindsay, Curtis. “Did Beethoven influence Clementi stylistically? What was Clementi’s opinion on him?” Quora, 25 August 2017. https://www.quora.com/Did-Beethoven-influence-Clementi-stylistically-What-was-Clementi%E2%80%99s-opinion-of-him
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) - Stich von Thomas Hardy nach einem eigenen Gemälde. B 1988, Beethoven-Haus Bonn. https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/6139104072826880/Muzio+Clementi+%281752-1832%29+-+Stich+von+Thomas+Hardy+nach+einem+eigenen+Gem%C3%A4lde?fromArchive=4886601146564608
Only Connect - Niccolò Paganini <> Ludwig van Beethoven. National Portrait Gallery. https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2011/only-connect-display/only-connect/nicolo-paganini/only-connect-nicolo-pagnini-ludwig-van-beethoven
Predota, Georg. At the Center of the Musical Universe Antonio Salieri. Interlude, 18 March 2020. https://interlude.hk/center-musical-universe-antonio-salieri/
Predota, Georg. Ludwig van Beethoven and His Fellow Musicians II. Interlude, 20 October 2020. https://interlude.hk/ludwig-van-b-and-his-fellow-musicians-ii/
van Betuw, Allysia. A Brief History of Clementi, the Underrated Innovator. PianoTV, 11 March 2017. https://www.pianotv.net/2017/03/history-of-clementi/
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