When the group arrived in Aschaffenburg, they learned that the town had a “competition” with Franz Xaver Sterkel, a highly acclaimed pianist who served as a gunner and court musician for the electors and archbishops of Mainz and since 1783 owned a fortepiano from Johann Andreas Stein. The local castle Johannisburg was until 1803 the second residence of the regents of Mainz. Wegeler reported on that event: “Because he had not yet heard any great or celebrated pianists, Beethoven, knew nothing of the finer nuances in the handling of the instrument [so Wegeler knew nothing of a meeting with Mozart in Vienna in 1787]; his playing was rough and hard. While on a journey from Bonn to Mergentheim, where the Elector kept a residence as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Beethoven and the Elector’s Orchestra stopped in Aschaffenburg. [Franz] Ries, Simrock and the two Rombergs took him to Sterkel who, in response to everyone’s request, sat himself down to play. Sterkel’s playing was very light, highly pleasing, and, as the elder Ries put it, somewhat ladylike. Beethoven stood beside him concentrating intensely. Then he was asked to play but only complied when Sterkel intimated that he doubted whether even the composer of the [Righini] Variations could play them all the way through. Beethoven not only played these variations, as far as he could remember them (Sterkel could not find the music), but also a number of others no less difficult and, to the amazement of his listeners, he played everything in precisely the same pleasant manner with which Sterkel had impressed him. That is how easy it was for him to adapt his style of playing to someone else’s.”
Extent
11 x 30.5 cm (4.375 x 12 in.)
Rights Note
This work is in the public domain and therefore the digital images attached to this catalog record may be used without permission. Credit statements for these images should read From the collections of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San José State University. For information on obtaining higher resolution reproductions and permission to publish, see the Beethoven Center's website https://www.sjsu.edu/beethoven/collection/library-materials/index.php
