Scan 63
Stokes Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1908
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1tions on a minuet "à la Vigano," and six minuets for piano were published in 1796; while many more important works were under way. In 1798 Beethoven met Bernadotte, then French ambassador at Vienna, from whom it is said he first received the idea of the Eroica symphony. His amusing encounter with Steibelt, the pianist, occurred at this time. Beethoven had composed a trio for piano, clarinet, and 'cello which was played at the house of Count Fries. Steibelt had assumed a haughty manner, and when they met again a week later, Steibelt produced a new quintet, and extemporized on the finale of Beethoven's trio; whereupon Beethoven took the 'cello part of Steibelt's composition, turned it upside down, and played a theme and variations which drove Steibelt out of the house. His encounter with Woefl, which happened on his return from two successful concerts in Prague, had a more agreeable ending. The two men played together at Count Wetzlar's home, and became good friends, although Beethoven did not return the compliment Woefl afterwards paid him in dedicating a group of sonatas to him. The first concert which Beethoven undertook for his own benefit in Vienna took place April 2, 1800, at which his Symphony No. 1, which had been completed the previous year, and his Septet were produced, and at which he played a piano concerto of his own. April 18 he appeared with Punto, the horn player, at a concert given by the latter. They played Beethoven's horn and piano sonata, which won an encore despite the Burg Theatre's rules to the contrary. In this year Beethoven began his practice of spending the summer in the country, going to Unter-Döbing, a village two miles from Vienna. On his return to town he accepted Czerny as a pupil. Some idea of Beethoven's business methods may be had from the statement that about this time he sold his Septet, Symphony in C, Piano concerto in B flat, and B flat sonata to Hoffmeister of Leipsic for 20 ducats, or about $50 each, himself reducing the concerto to half price on the ground that it was by no means one of his best. Mar. 28, 1801, his ballet, "Prometheus," was produced at the Burg Theatre, where it had a run of 16 nights. Its popularity resulted in the publication of a piano score, and the following year it had a second run of 13 nights. With money in his pocket Beethoven exchanged the lodgings he had maintained for the past two years at No. 241 "im tiefen Graben" to the more salubrious Sailerstätte, whence he could overlook the ramparts; and in the summer he went to Hetzendorf, where he worked at "The Mount of Olives," his oratorio to words by Huber. Beethoven, at this time entering upon his most prolific and useful period as a composer, began to have premonitions of the deafness which was soon to overtake him, and of the liver complaint, both the result of a severe malady of early manhood, which combined to render him melancholy and more irascible than ever in later life. His constitution was naturally rugged. Although but five feet five inches high, he was stockily built, with broad shoulders and powerful muscles. His hair, which became perfectly white toward the close of his life, was black and abundant; his complexion ruddy, and he wore neither beard nor moustache, although he had to shave up to his eyes. His teeth were white and sound; his eyes dark, almost black, were very expressive, redeeming a face which may have been ugly, but was not without nobility. His fingers were short, blunt, covered with hair, but very strong. The violin sonatas in A minor and F, the grand sonatas for piano in A flat and D, and the twin sonatas he entitled "Quasi Fantasia," the second of which has become known as "The Moonlight" from a reference to moonlight in a review by Rellstab, were all composed at a time when he realized his deafness was progressive and incurable, and in which he wrote: "Every day I come nearer to the aim which I feel, though I cannot describe it, and on which alone your Beethoven can exist. No more rest for him!" April 5, 1803, "The
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