Lecture: Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz “Ludwig van Beethoven und die jüdischen Salonièren”
“In the house of the finely educated Jewish banker’s wife Fanny von Arnstein, Beethoven became acquainted with a slim, young fellow whom the housewife lauded as a capable musician. Ignaz Moscheles, a native of Prague, came to Vienna to complete his music studies here with Albrechtsberger and Salieri... The housewife’s motherly charm even managed to captivate the inaccessible Ludwig van Beethoven. He accommodated the young colleague Ignaz Moscheles and the friendship became so warm that many years later, when he was director of the English Conservatory in London, Moscheles wrote a Beethoven biography in his second mother tongue, in the purest English” (Wiener Morgenzeitung[B&C1] , December 16, 1920).
Music played an important role in the Vienna salons of the Itzig sisters Fanny von Arnstein and Cäcilie von Eskeles. Fanny von Arnstein co-founded the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde and was an accomplished pianist herself. Concerts took place regularly at her house and she promoted young musicians and composers. Cäcilie von Eskeles was a gifted cellist and a close friend of Ludwig van Beethoven. On January 20, 1823, he dedicated a small composition to her, based on the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Let Noble Men Be Helpful and Good.”
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Photo (c) Jewish Museum Wien
