ABSTRACT
Early in 1787, Ludwig van Beethoven, went to Vienna for a short stay, and during his visit received a few lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Beethoven begged Mozart to give him a theme for improvisation. He always played admirably when excited, and now he was inspired too, by the presence of the master whom he reverenced greatly. The stay at Vienna had lasted only three months when the lad was summoned home. He returned via Augsburg, making friends there with the family of Schaden, a pianoforte maker, and borrowing £3 to help him on his way. The year 1787 closed with a happy circumstance in his appointment as pianoforte teacher to the son and daughter of Madame von Breuning. The von Breuning circle enabled Ludwig to make good some of the deficiencies in his education, especially on the literary side.
