Beethoven and Mozart

In 1781, during Beethoven's childhood, Mozart had moved from Salzburg to Vienna, the Austrian imperial capital, to pursue his career.

While Bonn was politically and culturally affiliated to Vienna,[2] it was geographically even more remote than Salzburg, lying around 900 km distant on the opposite side of German-speaking Europe.

[8] Beethoven's return to Bonn was prompted at least in part by his mother's medical condition (she died of tuberculosis in July of that year[9]).

Beethoven was not intimidated, and worked out the subject, the secret intention of which he immediately perceived, at great length and with such remarkable originality and power that Mozart's attention was riveted, and his wonder so excited that he stepped softly into the adjoining room where some friends were assembled, and whispered to them with sparkling eyes: "Don't lose sight of this young man, he will one day tell you some things that will surprise you!

In the absence of documents, much remains uncertain about the precise aims of the journey and the extent to which they were realized; but there seems little doubt that he met Mozart and perhaps had a few lessons from him.

At his father's urging, the young virtuoso left Vienna ... and returned home in a state of despondency over his mother's consumptive condition – and perhaps over a rejection by Mozart, who was preoccupied with his own affairs, including his worrisome financial condition, and may not have been able seriously to consider taking on another pupil, even one of great talent and backed by eminent patrons.

[14]Solomon goes on to enumerate other matters that kept Mozart preoccupied at the time: his father's declining health, a visit to Prague, the beginnings of work on Don Giovanni, and the writing of "a vast amount of other music".

The Grove Dictionary notes that his "first surviving letter, to a member of a family in Augsburg that had befriended him on his way [to Vienna], describes the melancholy events of that summer and hints at ... ill-health [and] depression.

Like Mozart, Beethoven early established a strong reputation as a keyboard performer, was mentored by Joseph Haydn, and was given patronage by Countess Maria Wilhelmine Thun.

Beethoven was also given patronage by Baron van Swieten, in whose home he played the works of Baroque masters, just as Mozart had done.

On the Prague phase of his journey, Beethoven composed an extended concert aria for the noted soprano Josepha Duschek, as Mozart had done on his visit in 1789.