62. "It has always been known that the greatest pianoforte players
were also the greatest composers; but how did they play? Not like
the pianists of today who prance up and down the key-board with
passages in which they have exercised themselves,--putsch, putsch,
putsch;--what does that mean? Nothing. When the true pianoforte
virtuosi played it was always something homogeneous, an entity; it
could be transcribed and then it appeared as a well thought-out
work. That is pianoforte playing; the other is nothing!"

(In conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.)

63. "Candidly I am not a friend of Allegri di bravura and such,
since they do nothing but promote mechanism."

(Hetzendorf, July 16, 1823, to Ries in London.)

64. "The great pianists have nothing but technique and
affectation."

(Fall of 1817, to Marie Pachler-Koschak, a pianist whom Beethoven
regarded very highly. "You will play the sonatas in F major and
C minor, for me, will you not?")

65. "As a rule, in the case of these gentlemen, all reason and
feeling are generally lost in the nimbleness of their fingers."

(Reported by Schindler as a remark of Beethoven's concerning
pianoforte virtuosi.)

66. "Habit may depreciate the most brilliant talents."