Which of Mozart’s contemporary composers did he never meet?
A) Beethoven B) Boccherini ü C) Haydn D) Hummel
Beethoven and Hummel both encountered Mozart at a young age. At sixteen, Beethoven was sent to Vienna expressly to meet Mozart, and did so, but the meeting was brief. Mozart heard the boy play, and said something complimentary — then Beethoven was called abruptly away, and what could have proved a very interesting encounter came to a premature close. Hummel, on the other hand, came to Mozart for piano lessons at eight as a budding prodigy, stayed at his house for two years, free of charge, then gave his first public concert at the age of ten. Haydn, the leading composer of the years preceding Mozart’s heyday, knew Mozart well for much of his working life. There seems to have been a good deal of mutual admiration between them.
