Content area
Full Text
WHEN BEETHOVEN LEFT BONN IN 1792 TO TAKE UP PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN VIENNA, he carried with him the good wishes of many members of Bonn's music-loving aristocracy, and an entrée into the homes of their counterparts in Viennese society. The names of many of these individuals have been immortalized through their connections with Beethoven; Waldstein, Lichnowsky, Liechtenstein, Rasumovsky, Lobkowitz, the Countesses Guicciardi and Erdödy, and members of the Habsburg family, are some of the more prominent persons who, as recipients of dedications, are associated with many of Beethoven's most treasured works.
None, however, received more acknowledgment from Beethoven in this regard than the Archduke Rudolph, whose relations with the composer were complex, multi-faceted, and richly rewarding for both. This prince of the Habsburg monarchy followed an ecclesiastical career and rose to the rank of Cardinal-Archbishop; yet his true love, and abiding avocation, was music. He was a fortepianist and composer of considerable accomplishment, as well as an avid music collector and a generous patron of the arts, and it was his good fortune to encounter Beethoven at a critical point in his own musical development and select him as a teacher. For the Archduke, this relationship brought him into close musical contact with the most famous composer of his time, and a unique position as his only student in composition. For Beethoven, it meant having as patron and protector an influential member of Europe's most powerful monarchy.
From the winter of 1803-04 (when he apparently first met Beethoven) until close to the composer's death, Archduke Rudolph was inextricably linked to Beethoven as pupil, patron, and staunch friend. The relationship, from Beethoven's point of view, was not without problems, for the composer disliked any routine that put limitations on his freedom and independence; nevertheless, he remained Rudolph's teacher for close to three decades, and despite his ambivalence about the constraints imposed by adherence to a teaching schedule, dutifully carried out his obligations to his student. The fruits of this teacher-pupil relationship took the form of a small but well-crafted body of compositions by Rudolph, which reflect not only seriousness of purpose and dedication to art, but also the everpresent inspiration provided by Beethoven.1
Archduke Rudolph was born in 1788 in the Pitti Palace in Florence,...