also the last, music that I composed for the pianoforte. It is
and always will be an unsatisfactory instrument. I shall
hereafter follow the example of my grandmaster Handel, and every
year write only an oratorio and a concerto for some string or
wind instrument, provided I shall have finished my tenth
symphony (C minor) and Requiem."

(Reported by Holz. As to the tenth symphony see note to No. 95.)

92. "God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes
the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."

(June 2, 1804. A note among the sketches for the "Leonore"
overture.)

93. "Never did my own music produce such an effect upon me; even
now when I recall this work it still costs me a tear."

(Reported by Holz. The reference is to the Cavatina from the
quartet in B-flat, op. 130, which Beethoven thought the crown of
all quartet movements and his favorite composition. When alone
and undisturbed he was fond of playing his favorite pianoforte
Andante--that from the sonata op. 28.)

94. "I do not write what I most desire to, but that which I need
to because of money. But this is not saying that I write only for
money. When the present period is past, I hope at last to write
that which is the highest thing for me as well as art,--'Faust.'"

(From a conversation-book used in 1823. To Buhler, tutor in the