Amateurs In 1796, four years after Beethoven's arrival in Vienna, the Jahrbuch der Tonkunst von Wien und Prag listed ‘the names and activities of 210 Viennese musicians under the title Virtuosen und Dilletante. According to the descriptions, all these ladies and gentlemen – aristocrats and middle-class people, singers and instrumentalists, professionals and amateurs – were engaged in lively musical activities.’ Some aristocrats were capable of playing at the highest professional level, among them two of Beethoven's later pupils, Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann and Archduke Rudolph, the Emperor's youngest brother and future Cardinal Archbishop of Olmütz. Both were sensitive and authentic interpreters of his music. In March 1809, for example, Beethoven asked Dorothea von Ertmann to give the premiere of the A major Cello Sonata, op. 69, with the brilliant young cellist Nikolaus Kraft. The composer and writer Johann Reichardt described her playing enthusiastically: ‘A lofty manner and a beautiful face, full of deep feeling. As she performed a great Beethoven Sonata, I was surprised as never before. I have never seen such power and such innermost tenderness combined even in the great virtuosi.’ Archduke Rudolph, whose playing also impressed Reichardt as showing ‘great skill, accuracy and refinement’, was accomplished enough to play with leading professional musicians too, among them the violinist Karl Seidler and the cellist Anton Kraft, in a performance of the two op. 70 piano trios; and later with the visiting French virtuoso, Pierre Rode, in the premiere of the Violin Sonata in G major, op. 96.

Patrons

Beethoven was fortunate in having a number of supportive and enthusiastic patrons. Many years later, his pupil, Carl Czerny recalled that