It is the year 1870—Beethoven's hundredth birthday is being celebrated not only in countless events but also with many publications. In the annual report of the conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, the archivist of the society, the Beethoven researcher Carl Ferdinand Pohl, devotes an extensive article to the composer. In it, after an enthusiastic introductory homage to Beethoven, he places a previously unknown manuscript from the archives at the center of his comments: the 1842 “Reminiscences” of Carl Czerny, who as a contemporary, pupil and friend of the composer here becomes a kind of intermediary between Beethoven's world and later times.

Had Carl Czerny still been alive on Beethoven's hundredth birthday, it would probably not have been possible to make him happier than by presenting him in this way in the role of a witness to those times, for after Beethoven's death, he felt called upon to pass on to posterity an image of Beethoven that was as close to the truth as possible: he became Beethoven's “posthumous ambassador,” so to speak. As signs of Czerny's attachment, it should also be remembered that he was a torchbearer at Beethoven's funeral and composed the “Marcia funebre sulla morte di Luigi van Beethoven.” But it was not only after Beethoven's death that Czerny championed the esteemed composer with commitment and enthusiasm; although the general public often showed no true understanding of Beethoven's music, already during his lifetime, Czerny was his friend, helper, and apostle.

From Carl Czerny's “Reminiscences” from the year 1842 we learn how the violinist Wenzel Krumpholz had already roused Czerny's enthusiasm for Beethoven's music when he was a child, how he entreated his father to get him all of Beethoven's available compositions, and how, when he was about ten years old, he was finally allowed to play for Beethoven—among other things the “Sonate Pathétique,” Op. 53 and “Adelaide.” According to Czerny, Beethoven responded: “The boy has talent; I myself will teach him and accept him as my pupil.” After a while, however, because of time problems, the lessons were interrupted. In the meantime, Czerny was introduced by Krumpholz to Beethoven's friend and patron Moritz von Lichnowsky, with whom he spent a few hours nearly every morning, playing Beethoven's piano works to him by heart, receiving a present every month for that service.