The figure of Beethoven loomed large throughout Moscheles’ life. He revered the composer and his music from the time he was a boy until his final days at the age of seventy-five, long after Beethoven himself had died. Moscheles expressed his feelings in no uncertain terms in 1837, as he was planning his first series of historical concerts: “Beethoven is great—whom should I call greater?” We have discussed Moscheles’ previous encounters with Beethoven, especially with regard to the 1823 concerts in Vienna. This chapter continues that discussion by examining the Beethoven-Moscheles relationship in detail. We begin by returning to Moscheles’ first personal contact with the composer and his music as a young professional in Vienna—especially the piano arrangement of Fidelio—and also describe his appearances under Beethoven’s baton as a percussion player in the now-famous performances of Wellington’s Victory, op. 91 (Wellingtons Sieg; oder die Schacht bei Vittoria) in 1813. A survey of the important personal role Moscheles played during the period before and after Beethoven’s death in 1827, and of the works of Beethoven he performed throughout his life, including the establishment of the Ninth Symphony as a central work in the orchestral repertoire of England, occupies a central place in this chapter. We also relate Moscheles’ unhappy experiences at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn of 1845, and analyze Moscheles’ editions of Beethoven’s music and his translation of Schindler’s biography of the composer.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF FIDELIO

That first chance meeting at Artaria’s shop in 1810 had to be the high point of Moscheles’ early years in Vienna, as he described almost half a century later in the preface to his Life of Beethoven: