The year 1809 began well for Beethoven. The legal contract designed to provide him with an annual income for life, which had been initiated by Baron Gleichenstein and Countess Erdödy, was agreed on 26 February and signed by three of Beethoven's young patrons, Archduke Rudolph, Prince Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz:

Enemy occupation and the death of Haydn

Six weeks later, on 9 April 1809, Austria declared war on France for the third time, only to be defeated yet again after a series of disastrous battles. The imperial family, including Archduke Rudolph, left Austria on 4 May for the safety of Hungary, inspiring Beethoven to compose the affectionate first movement of the Piano Sonata in E flat major, op. 81a, Das Lebewohl (Farewell), which he completed after the Archduke returned the following year. The French were quick to lay siege to Vienna; the bombardment of the city was at times so severe that ‘rich and poor, high and low, young and old … found themselves crowded indiscriminately in cellars and fireproof vaults.’ Beethoven ‘spent the greater part of the time in a cellar in the house of his brother, Carl, where he covered his head with pillows so as not to hear the cannons’, and also, no doubt, to protect his hearing.

In another part of the city a cannon-ball landed in the courtyard of Haydn's house, and throughout the day there was shooting from a fortress close by. Although ‘our good Papa composed himself a bit’, wrote Johann Essler, Haydn's faithful servant and copyist, ‘his nerves were hit too hard … his whole body sank.’