To: the Archduke Rudolph
Vienna, 1814

Your Imperial Highness!

       I am really delighted to know that I may banish my anxieties about your supreme welfare. For myself I hope (seeing that I always feel well when I am able to get pleasure to Y.I.H.) that my health too will be completely restored as quickly as possible; and then I will hasten at once to give you and myself satisfaction for the rests we have had to observe –– As for Prince Lobkowitz, he is still resting while I continue to play, and I fear that he will never come in again on the right beat –– and at Prague (Good Heavens, perhaps it concerns the story of Prince Kinsky) people have scarcely heard of polyphonic singing, for they sing in very long, slow chorale notes, among which there are some of 16 bars  -- Since all these dissonances seem likely to resolve themselves very slowly, the best thing to do is to produce those which one can resolve oneself – and to leave the rest to inevitable Fate –– Let me again express my great delight at Your Imperial Highness’s recovery ––

                         Your most obedient servant
                                                                    Ludwig van Beethoven