Ludwig van Beethoven – ( Ludwig van Beethoven by Lazarus Gottlieb Sichling, after Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller line engraving, (1823)

 Beethoven never managed to visit London, but, by the end of his life, had become as influential a member of the arts community there as any other composer. This was partially due to the foundation of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, which placed his work at the centre of their collection of idealising musicians, and due to the musicians that communicated to and from Vienna-Ferdinand Ries, Sir George Smart and the leader of a newly-empowered middle-class breed of musicians, the Scottish publisher G S Thomson. When Beethoven was sent to Vienna in 1792, he was instructed to ‘receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn’.

In April 1800, there was a performance of Haydn’s creation at the private residence of Baron Moritz von Fritz (1772-1826). The Baron lived in the Palais Fries, which his father Johann Josef, had built opposite the Hofburg. Fries had been presenting concerts in his salon since the previous season, when Haydn’s ‘Schöpfung’ was presented there in its septet version. These were evenings of serious minded chamber music. Other musicians who appeared at them in the following years i