#Beethoven250 Day 24
Violin Concerto Fragment (WoO 5), c. 1790–92
This is not the famous Beethoven Violin Concerto. This fragment is only part of a first movement of an earlier work, the remainder of which was uncompleted or lost.
On 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at the age of 35, and the awful news spread from Vienna throughout Europe. Joseph Haydn was in London when he heard and he was devastated. At nearly 60, Haydn was still actively composing, and he would live for another 17 years.
At the time of Mozart’s death, Beethoven was on the verge of his 21st birthday but not nearly yet Mozart’s obvious heir. Beethoven’s music had already been greatly influenced by his studies of Mozart’s scores, and he would continue to pay homage to Mozart throughout his life.
“Beethoven by the alchemy of his genius made everything into his own gold. The more one sees of his debt to other men, the more entirely Beethoven he appears.” — Marion Scott in her 1934 book “Beethoven”