Royal Influencers in the Time of Beethoven

Count Ferdinand von Waldstein was the man who connected Beethoven from Bonn, his birthplace, to Vienna, where Beethoven unfolded his new phase of life. They grew acquainted through the von Breuning family, one of Beethoven’s family friends in Bonn. The young prodigy soon caught the attention of the Count who had a great interest in arts, which led Waldstein to become “Beethoven’s first and in every respect most important patron,” as Beethoven’s childhood-friend Franz Wegeler described.

Move to Vienna, 1792

Waldstein’s patronage did not last very long because in November 1792, Beethoven decided to leave for Vienna permanently to pursue a broader career. On the eve of Beethoven’s departure, Waldstein wrote in an autograph album for Beethoven, saying,

This inscription indeed gave Beethoven the confidence to explore the new musical world he had never seen before; and it well-predicted Beethoven’s future that he “[received] the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn.” We can always spot Franz Joseph Haydn’s and Mozart’s shadow in Beethoven’s works, particularly those written in his first Vienna years since 1792. And through transforming the Classical tradition and developing his own style, Beethoven even transcended the legacy of his predecessors, which made him become the leader of a new musical age, as Waldstein prophesied.

However, Waldstein’s prophecy was also part of a larger narrative among the Viennese musical elite that Beethoven himself was the heir to the classical tradition, with Haydn as the father. Similar ideas to Waldstein’s “hands of Haydn” prophecy were published in various journals in Vienna during the 1790s, as well as in letters between various members of the aristocracy. All such accounts play up the relationship between Beethoven and Haydn, when in fact, they were perhaps not as close as described. Beethoven, upon refusing to inscribe “pupil of Haydn” at the top of his compositions, wrote to a friend that he did so because he had “never learned anything from [Haydn].” Despite this, the narrative about Beethoven as the heir to the classical tradition persisted. Thanks partially to Waldstein’s prophecy, Beethoven began his career in Vienna with the presumption of genius.

Dedication

Beethoven’s gratitude to Waldstein was still traced after their patronage relationship ended. His most well-known dedication to Waldstein was the Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, which he composed in 1804 – with more than a twelve-year span since their last meeting. When speaking of the dedication, the Beethovenian scholar Lewis Lockwood says, “the later dedication to Waldstein of the Piano Sonata Op. 53 probably reflects Beethoven’s gratitude for Waldstein’s early support rather than any obligation incurred at the time he composed the work in 1804.” Although Waldstein’s patronage only lasted till the early 1790s, his support to Beethoven had a profound influence on the composer, which changed the musical world even today.

Prince Karl Lichnowsky was probably Beethoven’s most ardent supporter in Vienna. Not only did the Prince provide Beethoven with a place to stay, but Lichnowsky provided Beethoven many of the connections that helped him establish himself as a renowned composer in Vienna. Lichnowsky himself was a passionate music lover, and as put by Lewis Lockwood in his biography of Beethoven, “he played chamber music by day and pursued women by night.” The Prince paid Beethoven an annuity of 600 florins and let him stay in an apartment in one of the Prince’s houses. While Beethoven certainly would have enjoyed the financial comfort that the Prince provided him, his time living in Lichnowsky’s house was certainly the closest that Beethoven ever was in his adult life to being a “servant-musician” like Haydn. Beethoven was known to have despised being in the servitude of a court like earlier musicians. Often he complained about the formality of dinners in the Prince’s house and preferred to eat alone in his apartment. 

Financing the Piano Trios, Opus 1

Besides financially supporting Beethoven through his twenties, Lichnowsky’s support helped to expand Beethoven’s reputation. One example of Lichnowsky’s support was how he supported the publishing of Beethoven’s Piano Trios Opus 1. Composers in the late 18th century generally reserved opus numbers for published works they considered to be substantial, important compositions. While Beethoven had composed a significant number of large works before the Opus 1 piano trios, by labeling these pieces with an opus number, Beethoven signaled to publishers and the public alike that these pieces were the first of his “adult” works. Among the 249 first copies, the Lichnowsky family purchased about 50 (the Prince purchasing 20 for himself). The Prince possibly underwrote the fixed costs accrued by Artaria & Co., a prestigious publishing company at the time that had published first editions of many of both Haydn and Mozart’s works. By helping Opus 1 become a success, both in the eyes of the Artaria and the public, Lichnowsky helped to market Beethoven as a successful published composer which in turn aided Beethoven’s further publications. By 1801, Beethoven’s reputation among publishing companies had risen so much that he wrote to Wegeler: “for every composition I can count on six or seven publishers, and even more, if I want them.”