When Bach plays, even God is listening! That was the saying among the lucky ones who had the privilege to hear Bach playing. Many decades later there was a composer who was listening still and listening very carefully. In this article we explore how Bach influenced Beethoven and his musical development and eventually his style. Strangely enough in Beethoven’s time …
As we continue our studies on friends and influencers in Beethoven’s life, we focus this time on the kind and noble Lichnowsky-family, in Vienna. One of Beethoven’s earliest Vienna friends was Prince Lichnowsky and his family. The Prince was a noble man, a gentleman and not least a music lover. He was the pupil of non-other than Mozart himself! Both …
Antonio Salieri was a very, very talented musician and composer! It was his bad luck that he was living in the same period and in the same city as Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. History was not kind to him and designated Salieri to be in the shadow of these Masters. This article will uncover how Salieri influenced Beethoven. As we …
We all know the stories how Haydn and Mozart influenced Beethoven’s composing and taste, but before Vienna, he was a teenager in Bonn with some very important influencers in his life. This article will discover who these people were and how they formed this genius in his youth. No man is an island! – the saying goes. Parents influence is …
It is well known that the relationship between Haydn and Beethoven was not an easy one. The blame falls almost entirely on Beethoven, but at the end he just made it right. Haydn and Beethoven first met in 1790 in Bonn, when the old Master was on his way to London with Johann Peter Solomon, who arranged Haydn’s visit to …
This article is about Beethoven’s early years in Bonn, his home city before Vienna. We will discover what compositions he made, if these were special in any way or quite the opposite. Let us find the answers to these questions! For almost two hundred years Vienna was the capital of music and all wannabes moved there to learn, shine and …