n
for Vienna, where all the remainder of his life was spent. At Vienna
he immediately began to give concerts, in which his piano playing was
the main feature, and his improvising upon themes presented by the
audience. This art always remained one of his great distinctions--the
surest proof of genius, the possession of musical fantasy, in which
every thought immediately suggests something else. He devoted himself
to serious study of counterpoint and composition under the instruction
of Haydn at first, but later with Albrechtsberger. His two great
elements of power at this period were his playing and his improvising.
Czerny says: "His improvisation was most brilliant and striking; in
whatever company he might chance to be, he knew how to produce such
an effect upon every hearer that frequently not an eye remained dry,
while many would break out into loud sobs; for there was something
wonderful about his expression, in addition to the beauty and
originality of his ideas, and his spirited manner of rendering them."

The limits of the present work do not admit of following the career of
this great master in the detail which would otherwise be desirable. It
must suffice to mention the more salient features. Contrary to the
precedent established by Mozart, Beethoven was in no hurry to appear
as a composer of ambitious pieces. After the early practical
experiences above described, and the further advantage of studies in
Vienna under the best teachers at that time living, it was not until
1795 that he appeared as composer of his first concerto for pianoforte
and orchestra, a Mozart-like work, but with an _Adagio_ of true
Beethovenish flavor. A year later he published his first three sonatas
for pianoforte, dedicated to Haydn. These three works are in styles
totally unlike each other, and there is little or no doubt that each
one of them was modeled after some existing work, which at that time
was highly esteemed in Vienna. The first in F minor, is plainly after
one by Emanuel Bach in the same key. The _Adagio_ of this is
especially interesting, not only because it shows a freedom and a pure
lyric quality totally foreign to Emanuel Bach, and beyond Mozart even,
but because it was taken out of a quartette which he had written when
he was fifteen years old. This shows that even at that early age
Beethoven had arrived at the conception of his peculiar style of slow
movements, which differed from those of Mozart in having a more
son