this particular one. The company was obdurate, however, and
finally appealed to Beethoven, knowing that he, if any one, could carry
the point. Beethoven turned to Ries and asked him to play it, saying: "I
am sure you will not play it so badly that you would not want me to hear
it," whereupon Ries complied, Beethoven turning the leaves for him. He
made a break in the bass part, at which Beethoven tapped him on the head
with his finger, whether to discipline him or only in play does not
appear. Later in the evening Beethoven played a sonata (opus 21),
entirely new, with which he himself was not very familiar. Princess
Lichnowsky, who had observed Beethoven's act in disciplining Ries
earlier in the evening, stationed herself back of Beethoven's chair,
while Ries turned the pages. When Beethoven made a mistake similar to
that of Ries, the Princess playfully hit him several taps on the head
with her hand, saying: "If the scholar is punished for making a slight
mistake, the master should not escape, when making a graver one," at
which all laughed, Beethoven taking the lead. Then he began again and
fairly outdid himself, particularly in the Adagio, in which the mistake
occurred.

The virtuosity of some of the Viennese of the period was marvellous.
Allusion has been made to the ability of the professional musicians, but
the amateur performers were in many cases equally proficient. It is
related that Beethoven's friend, Marie Bigot, played the Appassionata
Sonata at sight from the manuscript for the delectation of some friends.
Madame Bigot was the wife of the librarian of Count Rasoumowsky and
evidently took a prominent part in these entertainments. Sight-reading
before a critical audience is surely a difficult enough task under the
most favoring conditions; how much more so from the manuscript, with its
excisions and corrections and general indistinctness! It was, however,
an every-day matter especially in chamber-music. Huemmel is reported as
saying: "In Vienna there are a hundred ladies who can play the piano
better than I." Another musician, writing from Vienna in 1820, said: "In
every house there is a good instrument; at one, a banker's, there are
five."

On one occasion, some one laid before Beethoven a quartet in manuscript
which had just been composed. The band essayed it, of course at sight,
not one of the party having seen the manuscript before. The cellist got
out in the first movement. Beethoven got up, and while