Joseph Linke

He took part in the first performances of string quartets and other chamber works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

[2][3][4] He moved to Vienna in 1808, and became the cellist in a string quartet which Count Andrey Razumovsky had commissioned the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh to set up; Schuppanzigh's quartet gave concerts in the Count's palace.

[2][6] Linke remained with Schuppanzigh's quartet until it was disbanded, after the Count's palace partly burnt down on 31 December 1814.

Linke was attached to the household of Anna Maria Erdődy, a Hungarian noblewoman and close friend and patron of Beethoven.

[2][5] Schuppanzigh returned to Vienna in 1823, and Linke joined his re-established quartet, with Karl Holz and Franz Weiss.

[2] He died in 1837; he was described in an obituary in the music magazine Neue Zeitschrift für Musik: He was a great friend of Beethoven, who wrote much for him.