Kreutzer’s Brilliant Variations, Beethoven’s Silent Approval

Kreutzer became famous for his playing and for his method, and he loved to improvise variations. Once he arrived at a musical party and found Beethoven and other musicians gathered around the piano. They were trying to work out a set of variations Beethoven had written.

As Kreutzer listened, he realized Beethoven’s variations were clumsy—written more for effect than for playability. The others struggled with them. Boldly, Kreutzer sat down and improvised a new set of variations on the same theme, full of elegant passagework and idiomatic writing.

When he finished, everyone expected Beethoven to be offended. Instead Beethoven walked over, shook Kreutzer’s hand, and said, quietly, ‘That is exactly what I should have done.’