Did Mozart and Beethoven ever meet?

Mozart and Beethoven may have met once, in Vienna in early 1787. Beethoven was 16, and Mozart was 31. No letter or diary from the time records the meeting. The famous story about it was written down almost 70 years later. So the fair answer is: perhaps, and no one can prove it.

The short answer

Question	Answer
Were they alive at the same time?	Yes, for almost 21 years
Were they ever in the same city?	Yes. Beethoven visited Vienna in 1787, when Mozart lived there.
Is there proof that they met?	No
Did Beethoven study with Mozart?	Perhaps for a few lessons. There is no proof of that.
Did Beethoven know Mozart’s music?	Yes, and he admired it all his life

What is known

Mozart lived from 1756 to 1791. Beethoven lived from 1770 to 1827. Mozart was almost 15 years older.

In 1787, the young Beethoven traveled from his home in Bonn to Vienna. It was a long trip by coach. He most likely hoped to study with Mozart, who was the most admired musician in the city.

No one is sure how long he stayed. News came that his mother was ill and might not live, and he hurried home. She died that summer.

When Beethoven moved to Vienna for good in 1792, Mozart had been dead for almost a year.

The famous story

A biography of Mozart from the 1850s tells this story.

The boy from Bonn was taken to play for Mozart. Mozart listened and was polite, since he took the piece for a showpiece learned by heart. Beethoven noticed. He asked Mozart for a tune and made up music on it on the spot.

Mozart went to his friends in the next room. He is supposed to have told them to watch this boy, who would one day “give the world something to talk about.”

It is a good story. The writer heard it secondhand, long after both men were dead. It may be true, half true, or made up.

A clue that he heard Mozart play

One of Beethoven’s students, Carl Czerny, said that Beethoven had described Mozart’s piano playing to him. Beethoven called it fine and a little choppy, in the older style, with notes that did not flow into each other.

A person can describe a pianist’s touch only after hearing it. So Beethoven may have heard Mozart play, in a lesson or at a concert.

Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands

When Beethoven left Bonn in 1792, a friend wrote him a farewell note. It said that he would receive “Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.”

That is what happened. Beethoven took lessons from Haydn, who had been Mozart’s friend. Read Haydn for kids.

How Beethoven honored Mozart

• He played a Mozart piano concerto in public and wrote his own solo passages for it.
• He wrote sets of variations on tunes from Mozart’s operas.
• He copied out passages of Mozart’s music by hand, to study how they worked.

Which composers met?

Pair	Did they meet?
Mozart and Haydn	Yes. They were friends and played string quartets together.
Beethoven and Haydn	Yes. Haydn was Beethoven’s teacher for a time.
Bach and Handel	No. They were born in the same year, in towns not far apart, and they never met.
Mozart and Bach	No. Bach died six years before Mozart was born. Mozart did meet Bach’s youngest son in London.
Beethoven and Schubert	They lived in the same city for years. Schubert walked in Beethoven’s funeral procession and carried a torch.
Brahms and Tchaikovsky	Yes. They shared a birthday too.
Chopin and Liszt	Yes. They were friends in Paris.

Things to do together

Line them up. Slide the composer timeline to 1787. See who was alive, and how old each one was.

Act it out. One person is Mozart, and one is Beethoven. Mozart hums a short tune. Beethoven makes up a longer one from it.

Teacher and student. Play a slow movement by Mozart, and then one by Beethoven. Ask what is the same and what is different.

Proof or story. Read the famous story aloud. Ask your child what kind of proof would settle it.

Write the letter. Write the letter that Beethoven could have sent home from Vienna in 1787.

Questions to ask

• Why do people want this story to be true?
• How is a story told 70 years later different from a diary?
• Which two composers do you wish had met?

Print and play

Place both composers on the printed composer timeline. Read Mozart for kids, Beethoven for kids, and who taught whom.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.