Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808 participant Joseph Francis, 7th Prince of Lobkowicz
Critical responses
In this troubled venture Beethoven did enjoy the advantage that many in the audience were enthusiasts for his music and eager to attend. One such was the composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who was visiting Vienna. He later wrote (in his Personal Letters Written on a Trip to Vienna, 1810):
[25 December 1808] The past week, during which the theaters were closed, the evenings filled with public concerts and musical performances, causes me no little embarrassment in my ardent resolve to hear everything. This applies particularly to the twenty-second, when the local musicians gave the first of this season's great performances at the Burgtheater for their "deserving widows" fund [Tonkünstler-Societät; see above], while on the same day Beethoven also gave at the great suburban theater [Theater an der Wien] a concert for his benefit, at which only his works were played. This last I could not conceivably miss; that morning, accordingly, I accepted with many thanks the kind invitation of Prince von Lobkowitz to join him in his box.
Prince von Lobkowitz was a patron and supporter of Beethoven. Reichardt goes on to say:
There we sat, in the most bitter cold, from half past six until half past ten, and confirmed for ourselves the maxim that one may easily have too much of a good thing, still more of a powerful one.
Reichardt's opinion echoed that of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung:
To judge all these pieces after one and only hearing, especially considering the language of Beethoven's works, in that so many were performed one after the other, and that most of them are so grand and long, is downright impossible.The concert provoked the ire of fellow composer Antonio Salieri, who had been Beethoven's teacher. Also on 22 December, Salieri organized his annual concert to benefit widows and orphans, and he threatened to ban any Tonkünstler-Societät musicians who had played in Beethoven's concert instead of his own. However, soon after the relationship between the two composers improved.
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