Maximilian Francis was as affable and generous as he was passionately fond of music.  A newspaper of the day records, that he used to walk about the streets of Bonn like any other citizen, and early became very popular with all classes.  He often took part in the concerts at the palace, as upon a certain occasion when “Duke Albert played violin, the Elector viola, and Countess Belderbusch piano-forte,” in a trio.  He enlarged his orchestra, and, through his relations with the courts at Vienna, Paris, and other capitals, kept it well supplied with all the new publications of the principal composers of the day,—­Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Pleyel, and others.

No better school, therefore, for a young musician could there well have been than that in which Beethoven was now placed.  While Neefe took care that he continued his study of the great classic models of organ and piano-forte composition, he was constantly hearing the best ecclesiastical, orchestral, and chamber music, forming his taste upon the best models, and acquiring a knowledge of what the greatest masters had accomplished in their several directions.  But as time passed on, he felt the necessity of a still larger field of observation, and, in the autumn of 1786, Neefe’s wish that his pupil might travel was fulfilled.  He obtained—­mainly, it is probable, from the Elector, through the good offices of Waldstein—­the means of making the journey to Vienna, then the musical capital of the world, to place himself under the instructions of Mozart, then the master of all living masters.  Few records have fallen under our notice, which throw light upon this visit.  Seyfried, and Holmes, after him, relate the surprise of Mozart at hearing the boy, now just sixteen years of age, treat an intricate fugue theme, which he gave him, and his prophecy, that “that young man would some day make himself heard of in the world!”

It is said that Beethoven in after life complained of never having heard his master play.  The complaint must have been, that Mozart never played to him in private; for it is absurd to suppose that he attended none of the splendid series of concerts which his master gave during that winter.

The mysterious brevity of this first visit of Beethoven to Vienna we find fully explained in a letter, of which we give a more literal than elegant translation.  It is the earliest specimen of the composer’s correspondence which has come under our notice, and was addressed to a certain Dr. Schade, an advocate of Augsburg, where the young man seems to have tarried some days upon his journey.

“Bonn, September 15, 1787.

“HONORED AND MOST VALUED FRIEND!