Bonngasse 515, Bonn

two German composers, Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) were both born at Bonngasse 515 in Bonn, Germany? 35 years apart from each other.

Beethoven who knew Salomon from his days in Bonn, wrote to fellow composer Ferninand Ries on hearing of his death, “Salomon’s death grieves me much, for he was a noble man, and I remember him since I was a child.”

Johann Peter Salomon is buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, London where he had moved in the early 1780’s. He was an accomplished violinist and composer, but yet he is perhaps best known for bringing another promising composer, the Austrian Joseph Haydn (at one time a tutor of Beethoven) to London and for conducting the symphonies that Haydn wrote during his stay in England.

Beethoven was initially buried in the Währing cemetery in Vienna, but in 1862 his remains were exhumed for study, and moved in 1888 to Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof. We all know of course what a great composer he was, even after he started losing his hearing. But did you know that he himself dated the hearing loss from a fit he suffered in 1798 at the age of 27? And why did he have this fit? Well, simply because he was interrupted while working and he got so angry that he fell over, and then got up to find himself deaf! He did partially recover his hearing, but later it gradually declined, and he also suffered from a severe form of tinnitus. Still, he kept on composing. Lucky for us who get to hear his compositions.