Rodolphe Kreutzer Beethoven first met Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831) in 1798, when the violinist visited Vienna as a member of the French ambassador, General Bernadotte's, entourage. Though German by birth, Kreutzer had been brought up in Paris and became a leading exponent of the influential French Violin School, which Beethoven admired so much. During the visit, Kreutzer and Beethoven performed together on at least one occasion – a soirée at the Lobkowitz palace on 5 April 1798 – perhaps playing one or more of Beethoven's newly composed violin sonatas, op. 12. After Kreutzer returned to Paris they never met again, but Beethoven wrote friendly letters to him from time to time, including a letter of recommendation written as late as 1825, in which he referred to himself as ‘votre ancien ami’.

His admiration was not reciprocated, however. Kreutzer seems to have disliked German music in general and Beethoven's music in particular; he was even said to have walked out of a performance of the Second Symphony in Paris, blocking his ears as he did so. Moreover, it is unlikely that he ever performed the sonata which would later immortalize his name as, according to Berlioz, he regarded it as ‘outrageously unintelligible’. Not knowing what Kreutzer thought of his music, Beethoven instructed his Bonn friend, the music publisher, Nikolaus Simrock – who seems to have been dragging his feet – to include a dedication to the distinguished French violinist: