ABSTRACT
Ludwig van Beethoven's habit of saddling himself with far more commissions than he could carry out in a reasonable time is shown in a typical letter to Thomson of Edinburgh, written in 1811. Apart from the production of the "Pastoral" Symphony and the "Egmont" Overture in May and of the "Coriolan" Overture in July, there appears to have been no other public performance of Beethoven's music during this year—chiefly owing to the disturbed state of public affairs. The B flat Pianoforte Trio, Op. 97 —known as "The Archduke", from its dedication to the Archduke Rudolph—was finished, as was also the unimportant incidental music to the "Ruins of Athens" and "King Stephen"; and among the publications for the year were the "Adieu" Sonata and the Choral Fantasia. A good many anecdotes survive concerning the association of Goethe and Beethoven. Probably some of them are apocryphal.
