WHEN IN 1824 Johann Andreas Stumpff, a German instrument maker working in London, traveled to Vienna to visit the deaf composer of the Ninth Symphony and asked through written exchange whom he considered the greatest composer, Beethoven acknowledged neither Haydn nor Mozart (nor for that matter, J. S. Bach) but Handel, adding, in a rare gesture of subservience, ‘to him I bow the knee’. Though Handel is usually not prominent in discussions of influences on Beethoven, there is a trail of evidence to suggest that he should be. Among Beethoven's most prized possessions in his study at the end of his life was Samuel Arnold's first collected edition of Handel's music (1787–97). What is more, Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture (1822), with its magisterial opening, baroque-like trumpet flourishes, and infectious, energetic fugal counterpoint, was unthinkable without Handel: according to Anton Schindler, Beethoven's amanuensis, the composer himself admitted that his goal was to write in a Handelian style. Even as a young applicant for the post of deputy organist in Bonn, Beethoven contrived as an audition piece a fugue on Handel's The Harmonious Blacksmith. Perhaps we should not wonder, then, why in 1796, during the Berlin sojourn that produced the Op. 5 sonatas, Beethoven also chose for the theme of a set of piano and cello variations the popular chorus ‘See, the Conquering Hero’ from Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabeus. When these variations appeared from Artaria in 1797, the title page bore a French dedication to Prince Lichnowsky's wife, Maria Christiane: ‘À Son Altesse Madame la Princesse de Lichnowsky née Comtesse de Thun’. By then, performances of Handel's music, promoted by yet another patron of Beethoven and intimate figure of the Lichnowskys’ circle, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, had deepened Beethoven's own appreciation of the older master. We may thus sketch the background and common musical interests of three prominent members of the Viennese nobility connected to the history of the Handel variations before taking up the work itself.

Just how early Beethoven developed his taste for Handel is not known, but by 1794 he had certainly found a sympathetic ear for the German-turned-English composer in van Swieten (1733–1803).