Lost History – Did Beethoven ever meet Mozart?

When Ludwig Van Beethoven was a little boy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was already famed throughout Europe for his original compositions, instrumental virtuosity and prodigious contribution to the evolution of orchestral music.

While Mozart’s early works display an indebtedness to Haydn, among others, the young Beethoven was extraordinarily steeped in the arrangements and techniques of Mozart. His first compositional efforts were heavily inspired by the celebrated genius of Salzburg, and his later symphonies and concertos referenced many of his childhood hero’s masterpieces, but did the two ever meet?

Historians are divided on the question, and yet there are several persistent anecdotes that suggest that the two titans of classical music did encounter each other.

The most prominent tale regarding the possible meeting occurs when Beethoven received a leave of absence from the Bonn Court Orchestra aged sixteen. He reportedly travelled to Vienna and paid a brief call on a sickly thirty-year-old Mozart.

Mozart’s domestic situation had become intense at this point in his short life. His father’s health had also started to deteriorate, the strain of unpaid bills had begun to become unmanageable, and the composer was deep in the process of producing his darkest opera, Don Giovanni.

He therefore would have had little time available to host another aspiring prodigy, but several friends of Beethoven insisted that an audience between these two icons did take place. According to these sources, despite the difficulties of Mozart’s private life, Beethoven’s burgeoning reputation reached Mozart, engendering a curiosity on the older composer’s part as to the abilities of this up and coming wunderkid.

Upon learning of Beethoven’s love of his work, Mozart is said to have invited the nervous and highly-strung teenager in order to hear what all the fuss was about. When Beethoven arrived, Mozart asked the young man to play something for him. Accounts vary on the cordiality Mozart showed his impressive superfan. Some say Mozart’s ill health rendered him irascible and unwelcoming, and others claim that the venerated maestro of Viennese music kindly accommodated the anxious Beethoven.

Most agree that Beethoven attempted to curry favour with his famous host by playing his Piano Concerto no.24 in C Minor. When Beethoven began the concerto, Mozart allegedly interrupted the boy to say “anyone can play that! Play something of your own!”

Ludwig obliged and started to exhibit the originality of his genius, the adroitness of his playing and his ambitions for the future of music. Dazzled by the dexterity of his young guest’s performance, Mozart shouted to his wife, Constanza, in the next room “come in here!”As she entered, Mozart apparently remarked, “Watch that boy. One day he will give the world something to talk about.”

Beethoven’s discernible prowess prompted Mozart to offer lessons to the nascent artist, an offer that must have enthused the brooding youth.

Unfortunately, a tragic piece of news terminated their budding bromance before it really had time to blossom. A letter arrived informing Beethoven that his beloved mother was gravely ill with consumption. Only six weeks into his trip, Beethoven was forced to return home to visit his ailing parent.

It ended the prospect of his greatest dream – to be instructed in composition by Mozart himself. Less than five years later, Mozart was dead, and Beethoven had embarked on a creative quest that would alter the course of western aesthetics forever.

There is no way of verifying this apocryphal story, and many variations exist on what might have transpired if it did actually happen. Some historians assert that Mozart rejected Beethoven as a student, while many other acknowledged authorities on the lauded duo have omitted this anecdote from their acclaimed biographies.

Whether this meeting eventuated or not, it would have been an incomparable convocation of genius.