Andreas Streicher (1761-1833) - Büste, vermutlich von Franz Klein gefertigt um 1812, anonyme Reproduktionsfotografie nach einer ebenfalls anonymen älteren Aufnahme, Wien, um 1920?

The piano-maker and musician Johann Andreas Streicher and his wife belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven's closest friends in Vienna.

Streicher originated from Stuttgart and was a friend of Friedrich von Schiller since Schiller's time at the military academy "Hohe Karlsschule". In 1794, he married Nannette, who was the daughter of the famous Augsburgian piano-maker Anton Joseph Stein. He moved to Vienna with her, where they ran their own piano factory henceforth. Beethoven already got to know Nannette and Andreas Streicher when he was young. He probably contacted them again soon after the couple had moved to Vienna. Beethoven's friendship with Andreas and Nannette Streicher lasted for decades and in the years of 1817 and 1818, it became especially close, as numerous letters and various notes in the composer's conversation books proove.

Beethoven very much appreciated the pianos of Streicher's factory. For some time he preferred them to all other musical instruments, because - as he himself stated more than once - they corresponded to a high degree with his play and sound ideal. In appreciation of Streicher's work, Beethoven helped his friend several times sell the musical instruments.

Nannette and Andreas Streicher had not only been piano-makers. But the concerts they first hosted in their apartment - and from 1812 on in a piano room, which accommodated an audience of 300 people - also made an important contribution to the Viennese musical life. Andreas Streicher was known of his good connections, his competence and his solicitousness. Very often, he was the contact person for Beethoven's friends and aquaintances, when they could not or did not want to get in touch with Beethoven in person.(S.B.)