We have a good description of the master at this time by the artist Klober, who had been commissioned by a wealthy relative who was forming a gallery of famous Vienna artists, to paint a portrait of Beethoven.

“Beethoven had a very earnest look; his vivacious eyes were for the most part turned upwards, with a thoughtful and rather a gloomy expression, which I have tried to represent.  His lips were closed, but the mouth was not an unkindly one.  He was ready enough to expatiate on the arrogant vanity and depraved taste of the Viennese aristocracy, by whom he feels himself neglected, or at least underrated.”

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“Beethoven sat to me for nearly an hour every morning.  When he saw my picture, he observed that the style of hair pleased him very much; other painters had always dressed it up as if he were going to court, not at all as he generally wore it.”

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“His house at Moedling was extremely simple; so, indeed, was his whole manner of life.  His dress consisted of a light-blue coat with yellow buttons, white waistcoat and neckcloth, such as were then worn, but everything about him was very negligee.  His complexion was florid, the skin rather pock-marked, his hair the color of blue steel, for the black was already changing to grey.  His eyes were a bluish-grey and exceedingly vivacious.  When his hair streamed in the breeze there was a sort of Ossian-like daemonism about him.  But, when talking in a friendly way, he would assume a good-natured, gentle expression, particularly if the conversation was agreeable to him.”

As we have seen, it had been a favorite project of Beethoven for years to write a mass.  When he started to carry out his ideas, one course only seems to have been possible to him.  This was, to project it on the principle of his Symphonies, in which the orchestra should take the commanding part in interpreting the emotional and dramatic possibilities of the text.  His experience with his first mass had confirmed him in the belief that he could give the best expression to his ideas by the use of the orchestra, on account of its greater range, its mobility, the variety of its tones.  The idea of making it of more importance than the voice, upset all preconceived theories on the subject.  The orchestra was emphatically the tool best adapted to Beethoven’s powers; he developed it into something wholly different from what it was when he found it.  He put it to exquisite uses.  His effects are the happiest imaginable and they are introduced with a prodigality and lavishness suggesting a reserve as of oceans from which to draw.  Much of his vocal music is dominated by the orchestra.