To Beethoven, music as an art was
the most serious fact in his existence; to the others, it was no more
than a means of enjoyment or of subsistence. His point of view being so
different from that of the others, it is not surprising that he was
always at odds with them. Trifles often annoyed him more than gross
derelictions. At one of the rehearsals the third bassoon player was
absent and Beethoven was enraged. That anything short of illness or
disaster should keep this man from his post was a piece of insolence, an
insult to the art. Prince Lobkowitz was present, and in the effort to
pacify him, made light of the affair; he told him that this man's
absence did not matter much, as the first and second bassoonists were
present, a line of argument that served to include the Prince in
Beethoven's wrath. Hofsekretaer Mahler relates the denouement of the
incident. On the way home, after the rehearsal, as he and Beethoven came
in sight of the Lobkowitz Platz, Beethoven, with the delinquent third
bassoonist still in his mind, could not resist crossing the Platz, and
shouting into the great gateway of the palace, "Lobkowitzscher Esel"
(ass of a Lobkowitz).
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