Under the
circumstances, it is not surprising that the lessons continued but
little over a year. His studies in theory and composition seem to have
come to an end with Albrechtsberger; we hear of no other teacher having
been engaged thereafter.
Shortly after Beethoven came to Vienna, his father died, and soon after
the two brothers Johann and Caspar, having no ties to keep them in Bonn,
followed the elder brother, who kept a fatherly watch over them. They
gave him no end of trouble for the rest of his life, but Beethoven bore
the burden willingly and was sincerely attached to them. All the honor
and nobility of the family seems to have centered in him.
On his arrival in Vienna he carried letters of introduction from Count
Waldstein and from the Elector, which opened to him the doors of the
best houses. His intrinsic worth did the rest. One of his earliest
Vienna friends was Prince Lichnowsky, a person who seems to have
possessed a combination of all those noble qualities that go to make up
the character of a gentleman.
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