A Visit to Beethoven’s Vienna: Two Museums Every Music Lover Should Experience

The Ludwig van Beethoven exhibition is a must-see at the House of Music (Sound Museum) in Vienna, Austria. It features a Broadwood pianoforte of 6 octaves and two pedals, a similar instrument on which Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata. Although the original piano of Beethoven does not exist, the Broadwood model is a similar one made for Beethoven.

 On the other hand, another Beethoven museum, Pasqualati House, where the composer lived between 1804 and 1815,  shows a lithograph of the hall in Streicher’s piano factory around 1840. Beethoven often performed concerts in the old factory hall on a Streicher piano he prized highly. The museum tells the interesting story of the well-known “Fur Elise.”  The title “Fur Elise” came from Beethoven’s scholar and publisher, Ludwig Nohl, in 1867. He claimed that in 1810, he saw the original manuscript with the handwritten title by Beethoven. Others claimed that the piece should have been dedicated to Therese von Drosdick (Malfatti) (Fur Therese), whom Beethoven fancied during that period.  

The House of Music also has a facsimile of the famous piano sonata, "The Moonlight," on display—the front page, as well as a metronome from 1846 constructed by Nepomuk Malzel. Beethoven imitated the metronome beat in his Symphony No. 8, Op. 93, Allegretto Scherzando, celebrating the invention. Later on, Beethoven added metronome marks to his later works and promoted the “marvelous ticker” with his friend Antonio Salieri (1750-1825). Another interesting display is a portrait of young Beethoven at age 13 by an unknown Bonn painter from around 1783 and a door from the last home Beethoven lived in. The music of Beethoven's symphonies fills the room; thus, the experience is worth remembering.