BEETHOVEN AND THE EMPEROR JOSEPH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1926, 15 January 1891, Page 36

BEETHOVEN AND THE EMPEROR JOSEPH.

A rather pretty story is told of Beethoven's debut at the Court of the Emperor Joseph. The great musician was but a lad of 16, when he pub on his best suit of clothe 3 and went to the palace. with his letters of introduction in his hand. Admitted to one of the antechambers oE the Hofburg, he was received by a kindly mannered person of very simple address, who asked him as to who had recommended him to the Viennese court, and bade him present himself at the Augarten that evening for an audience of the sovereign.

Beethoven asked this affable gentleman if he knew his Majesty, and receiving an answer in the affirmative, went on to inquire if be was in the Emperor's service. " Certainly ; I sometimes shave him," drily replied the other. "Tell me then, is he indulgent or severe?" further demanded young Ludwig. "That depends," said the stranger; " about musical matters he is strict enough." "Oh, I know what that means," contemptuously retorted Beethoven ; "he plays the piano a little, and strums away on the violoncello, and composes sonatas ; but these big people, between you and me, don't carry their musical studies very far, after all, you know." The unknown gentleman roared with laughter at this, and remarked " It was true enough," with which the young debutant took his departure. In the evening he duly presented himself at the Augarten, and was shown into a small salon, where two persons were talking eagerly, and 10, the one who wore splendid orders, and before whom the servants bowed so low, was none other than his acquaintance of the morning, the gentleman " who sometimes shaved the Emperor," and who was evidently none other than his Majesty himself 1 Beethoven was terribly flustered at this discovery; but the Emperor laughed good-humouredly at the lad's evident consternation, and bade him sit down and improvise variations on a theme from Mozart's VZarastro." The young musician, nothing loth to hide his blushing cheeks, sat down to the piano and extemporised divinely on the desired air.

When he ceased, the second personage in the room rushed up and embraced him fervently, with loud exclamations of approval — " Such taste ! Such skill 1 The youth who could so interpret the thought of another composer would one day be a great master in the art himself 1 " " Ab, but the air itself is so beautiful," replied young Beethoven. " Mozart's music is divine," he added, with the generous admiration of one great genius for the works of another. " Don't you know who you are talking to ? " cried the Emperor, interrupting his raptures. "It is Mozart himself to whom you have been playing, and whose lips have just predicted the great future that lies before you ! "