I must thank my dear friend Mick Walton for giving me the opportunity to return to Vienna during the month of October this year. Mick is a great scholar of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890), an explorer, writer, orientalist scholar and British soldier. He was famous for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as for his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures; according to one count, he spoke twenty‑nine languages.

Burton’s best‑known achievements include: a well‑documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when non‑Muslims were forbidden to enter under penalty of death; an unexpurgated translation of The Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after the first translations of the French version by Antoine Galland); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the “Arabic Kama Sutra”; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the African Great Lakes in search of the source of the Nile.

I had been contacted by Mick several months ago because Richard Burton, during his life, had known Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–1897), the great biographer of Beethoven, with whom he had formed a true friendship. Having learned of my studies on A.W. Thayer, Mick had asked me whether I wished to take part in a conference on Richard Burton that would be held in Vienna at the Diplomatische Akademie, located in a historic palace in the city centre, to illustrate to those present the connection between Richard Burton and A.W. Thayer.

Mick also contributed something to A.W. Thayer: in fact, several years ago he found the funds to restore Thayer’s tomb in Trieste. A meeting between us was therefore inevitable, given what we have in common.

It is incredible how interest and research bring people together, thanks also to the sharing of one’s passions, and it is also extraordinary, thanks to these occasions, to meet people who come from many parts of the world and who share the same interests and curiosities, even while living far apart, each with their own habits and culture…

During my presentation, one of the most important aspects I certainly addressed was the friendship between R. Burton and A.W. Thayer; the latter was “one of the family” for the Burtons, and they met every week for a “cultural” dinner at the Burtons’ home, Villa Gossleth (large promontory). The name derives from the previous owners, the Gossleth family of Trieste, whose Pepina Gossleth was given in marriage to Gerhard von Breuning of Vienna, son of Stephan, friend of Beethoven.

And it was precisely thanks to their experience in Trieste as consuls (respectively British and American) that Burton and Thayer met and became acquainted. A friendship that continued even with Burton’s wife after Richard’s death in Trieste on 19 October 1890.

The presentation was later posted online; the link is as follows (it can also be viewed at the end of this page): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-sNTtTyHh0

The talks given by the other participants were also interesting, and it was also nice to listen to passages taken from one of R. Burton’s most famous books, The Thousand and One Nights.

The morning therefore passed listening to the various testimonies, attending a short concert followed by lunch, while in the afternoon the presentations continued, also with several piano pieces from the Burtonian period.

In the following days, being in Vienna, I then took the opportunity to visit the various places dedicated to Beethoven and in particular the Beethoven Museum, located in one of his Viennese residences, far from the city centre, in a vineyard area, in a very beautiful village known as Heiligenstadt; thanks to the Museum’s director we were able to view the rich library and see the various rooms, well organised, full of instruments that offered insights that allowed us to learn more closely about various aspects of Beethoven’s life and works, as well as the place where Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the famous testament on 6 October 1802.

A visit to the Belvedere and Schönbrunn Palace was a must, as well as a few bookshops to look for rare books and other Beethoven memorabilia.

Luigi Bellofatto – Co‑author of the Beethoven Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org