Marie Bigot

She was highly accomplished at the piano and played for Haydn, who exclaimed, "Oh, my dear child, I did not write this music – it is you who has composed it!"

She was the first to play for him, from the autograph, his newly written Appassionata Sonata,[3] impressing him so much that he told her, "That is not exactly the character I wanted to give this piece; but go right on.

[5] In 1808, after a misunderstanding over Beethoven's invitation to take Marie and her three-year-old daughter, Caroline, for a drive and her refusal, the famous composer sent an apologetic letter to her and her husband, writing, "It is one of my foremost principles never to occupy any other relations than those of friendship with the wife of another man.

I should never want to fill my heart with distrust towards those who may chance someday to share my fate with me and thus destroy the loveliest and purest life for myself.

[7] In 1812, her husband was taken prisoner as part of Napoleon's campaign in Russia, and Marie took to teaching piano to support her two children.