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Did Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven ever meet?
“It’s well-known that Haydn and Mozart were friends, but the much more perplexing question among the great classical composers is: did Mozart and Beethoven ever meet? The answer is, maybe. There was a six-week period in 1787 when both of them were in Vienna at the same time, so it’s possible that they established some sort of personal connection. Beethoven was 16 at the time. He may even have had some lessons from Mozart. But the only source of that information isn’t contemporary — it only comes from Beethoven’s 19th-century biographers, based on little hard evidence. Even if they did meet, it didn’t do Beethoven much good. He went back to Bonn utterly depressed — that much we know for a fact, from his letters.”
The following excerpts come from from an ABC Classics online article by Martin Buzacott (link)
the fortepiano
Viennese vs English fortepianos
While in modern times standardization has affected the craft of piano building, in the 18th century instruments were still personal works of art. Therefore, pianos differed from town to town and from builder to builder. Although within geographical area craftsmen did influence one another, the distance between two cities as far apart as London and Vienna resulted in the establishing of two distinct schools of piano building: the Viennese and the English.
Whereas Mozart was familiar only with Viennese actions; Haydn was familiar with both Viennese and English fortepiano actions and saw the merits in each. Beethoven, on the other hand, could have been said to be dissatisfied with all pianos he encountered to some degree. He favored the increasingly rich and sustained tones of English models, while yearning for the light and facile touch of the Viennese pianos.
Excerpts from awesom.info (link)
Ferdinand Ries
(likely 2nd Symphony arranger)
Portrait engraving of Ferdinand Ries by Carl Mayer
The arranger for Ludwig van Beethoven's Second Symphony on today's program, Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838) was a friend, pupil, and erstwhile secretary to the great composer. Their lives were intertwined from the beginning: Ries' father Franz was one of Beethoven's first teachers in their shared hometown of Bonn, and Beethoven took on Ferdinand as a student in 1803, when the younger Ries made his way to Vienna to seek musical fame and fortune. Beethoven quickly grew to depend on Ries in his professional life: Ries corresponded with publishers, ran errands, and copied scores for Beethoven; in turn, Beethoven taught Ries piano and secured work for him in various aristocratic households. Ries made his public debut as a pianist with Beethoven's Third Concerto, being allowed to substitute his own cadenzas in lieu of Beethoven's. Ries' later career took him to Russia and England, and he never lost touch with Beethoven. He ultimately spent his final years centered in Frankfurt, where he died unexpectedly at the age of 53.
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