Beethoven and Mozart: The one and only meeting between two of music’s giants

At Easter in 1787, a young Beethoven with obvious talent left Mozart spellbound as the composers met in Vienna

Connection: Mozart and Beethoven. Picture via DeAgostini/Getty

George Hamilton

January 28 2023 02:30 AM

Connections abound in the world of music. Some were made the hard way, like the 250-mile hike the young Johann Sebastian Bach undertook to get to meet the doyen of the day, Dietrich Buxtehude. Others followed a more formal, less strenuous route.

Ludwig van Beethoven, music’s biggest name bestriding the classical landscape like a colossus, was a 16-year-old lad when he made a crucial contact courtesy of a letter of introduction from his local archbishop.

The teenager from Bonn was developing a career as an instrumentalist, learning to play the organ and the piano, the violin and the viola. He was also taking his first steps in composition.

His talent was obvious. His teacher, a respected composer and conductor by the name of Christian Neefe, had described him as a young genius who had all the makings of another Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It was arranged that Beethoven — already on the musical staff of the court of the Archbishop of Cologne — would make the trip to Vienna and, armed with the recommendation from his employer, be introduced to the great man.

At Easter in 1787, the two met in Mozart’s apartment. Mozart, at 31, was almost exactly 15 years his senior.

The stocky boy with the tousled hair was invited to sit at the piano and play. He chose a tune by his host. Mozart wasn’t impressed, saying it sounded like a showpiece he’d been practising for the occasion.

So Beethoven asked Mozart to suggest something else, and he would play around with it. These variations on a theme left the older man spellbound. That boy is going to give the world something to talk about, was his verdict.

How right he was. The strange thing is, though, that that appears to have been their one and only meeting. There’s no evidence to suggest that Mozart took Beethoven on as a pupil, no indication that they ever compared notes.

Mozart’s short life ended when he was just 35, which makes the extensive catalogue of work he left behind all the more remarkable.

The sheer emotional depth of his Symphony No.40 sweeps you away, a composition in a minor key that nonetheless delivers positive energy in abundance. The balance and grace of the slow movements in two of his magnificent piano concertos — 21 and 23 — are like the very word “romantic” set to music.

His sense of humour often shines through. Take his Musikalischer Spass, or musical joke, the piece ending in the most outrageously unharmonic of chords.

The music of Beethoven, who lived to be 56 and was completely deaf by the end, can appear to be altogether more grand, yet allow yourself to be captivated and you’ll find Mozartian echoes in all sorts of corners.

From the deceptive simplicity of his most popular bagatelle — Für Elise — to the triumphant choral conclusion of his ground-breaking Ninth Symphony, he pushes boundaries, taking the music where you would never have thought it could go.