n the Swan, Clementi with his pupil Klengel and Beethoven with me; all knew each other but no one spoke to the other, or confined himself to a greeting (Plantiga 310).
Beethoven and Clementi apparently overcame their icy beginning, since they finally met in 1807, and Clementi did eventually acquire some of Beethoven's work for publication; unfortunately, however, Plantinga notes that, due to Clementi's "special love for gold" (156) and his overwhelming desire to publish Beethoven's compositions, the two composers did not use their meeting (or their business partnership) as an opportunity to learn from one another or even to develop a simple bond of friendship; rather, Clementi "seemingly viewed the occasion only as an opportunity to strike a lucrative bargain" (156).
Nevertheless, Beethoven was certainly familiar with Clementi's work, and his writings attest to the fact that he held Clementi's pedagogical work in especially high regard. In a letter written in 1826 to Stephan von Breuning, Beethoven wrote: "I send herewith Clementi's School of
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