Beethoven's Letters

"The meeting of [Goethe and Beethoven] was a disappointment on both sides. Goethe pitied B on account of his rough manners and deafness, and naturally the polished courtier was not in sympathy with the composer's radical opinions. The impression which the man Goethe made on Beethoven is graphically expressed in [Beethoven's own] words: 'One cannot laugh much at the ridiculous things that virtuosi do, when poets, who ought to be looked upon as the principal teachers of the nation, forget everything else amidst this glitter.'"