Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor, Opus 37
Piano Concerto No.4 in G Major, Opus 58

In the last month of 1792 Beethoven arrived in Vienna, the city in which Mozart had died in straitened circumstances the year before. He came with introductions to important patrons and with the support of his employer, the Archbishop of Cologne, a son of the old Empress Maria Theresa, having already won considerable praise in Sonn as a pianist. In 1787 Beethoven had come to Vienna for lessons with Mozart, but had had to return home on news of his mother's fatal illness. Now he took lessons from Haydn, from the Court Composer Salieri and from Albrechtsberger, who was to become Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Beethoven enjoyed great success in these early years in Vienna, welcomed by society, always in search of some novelty. In the closing years of the century, however, he experienced th