Beethoven was blessed to have many excellent teachers and mentors, but nobody was so influential in his life than Christian Neefe. Who was Christian Gottlob Neefe? Christian Gottlob Neefe (5 February 1748 – 28 January 1798) was a German musician and composer, who also was a writer. Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Saxony, into a poor family. His musical talent …
There is a very popular anecdote about the meeting of Mozart and Beethoven. According to this, when Beethoven first visited Vienna in 1787 (at age 17), he was introduced to Mozart. The young talent played a piece and when he saw Mozart was not impressed, he begged for more time to improvise. This finally convinced Mozart, who said: “Mark that …
We continue our series on musical influencers in Beethoven’s life. Next in line is no less than Mozart himself! From his childhood everybody wanted him to be a Mozart! How did this expectation influence his life? There is a very popular anecdote about the young Beethoven visiting Vienna for the first time, and being introduced to the supreme Master, even …
Apart from Neefe probably it was Georg Albrechtsberger, who was the most influential music teacher in Beethoven’s life. In this article we discover who Albrechtsberger was and his influence on Beethoven. Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809) was an Austrian musician, a composer and organist. As a young man he had learned music and philosophy what he later combined in music theory. …
Ludwig van Beethoven started playing the keyboard very early, at age 5. His first instructor was his own father, but his most influential early teacher was Christian Gottlob Neefe. At that time piano was not yet fully developed and most probably Beethoven started his pianist life on a harpsichord. Beethoven was born into a musician family. His grandfather (also called …
Continuing our series on influencers in Beethoven’s life our next stop is Joseph Haydn. The two composers had turbulent relationship, young Beethoven pushed the gentle old Master to the limits, even making a fraud move behind his back. Who was Joseph Haydn? Franz Joseph Haydn (31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was a major Austrian composer in the …