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I. Historical Antecedents
Haydn met Beethoven, presumably for the first time, in 1790, when he stopped over in Bonn on his way to London; he had departed Vienna along with Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) on December 15,1790. They arrived in Bonn on Saturday, December 25, and on the same day Haydn made an entry in the guestbook of the Bonn Reading and Recreational Society (Lese- undErholungsgeseüschaß). On Sunday there followed a high mass by the court musical establishment, probably under the direction of Hof kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi (17411801 ), at which they performed one of Haydn's own masses in his presence. Subsequendy the elector, Maximilian Franz (1756-1801), presented to him "his entire musical company,"1 to which Ludwigvan Beethoven belonged as violist, harpsichordist, and second organist. Albert Christoph Dies ( 1755-1822) reported that the elector "took him at once by the hand, and presented him to his virtuosi with the words: ?Thus I make you acquainted with your much cherished Haydn.'"2 There was supposed to have been a small dinner in Haydn and Salomon's lodgings afterwards; at the invitation of the elector, this had "metamorphosed into a banquet for twelve persons to which the most capable musicians had been invited."3 That Beethoven attended this event is likely but cannot be proven.
On his return journey from London in July 1792, Haydn once again chose a route that passed through Bonn and stopped over there. According to Franz Gerhard Wegeier (1765-1848), the elector's orchestra hosted a breakfast for him in Bad Godesberg: "On this occasion Beethoven placed before him a cantata which Haydn paid special attention to, urging its composer to pursue his studies further."4 The cantata mentioned can only have referred to Beethoven's Cantata on the Death of EmperorJoseph II, WoO 87, or The Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, WoO 88, both of which date from 1790. Further evidence that Haydn and Beethoven met in the summer of1792 exists in the following inscription, which Beethoven's friend Christoph von Breuning (1773-1841) wrote in his Stammbuch:
Behold!
Albion beckons you, oh friend,
behold the shady grove that he offers the singer!
Hurry then without delay
across the surging sea
where a more beautiful grove offers you his shade,
and a bard extends his hand...