Vienna was one of the music centers of Europe during the classical period, and Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were all active there. As the 1 of the Holy Roman Empire (which included parts of present-day Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Czech and Slovakia), it was a 2 cultural and commercial center 3 a cosmopolitan character. Its population of almost 250,000 (in 1800) made Vienna the fourth largest city in Europe. All three 4 masters were born elsewhere, but they were 5 to Vienna to study and to seek 6 . In Vienna, Haydn and Mozart became close friends and influenced each other"s musical 7 . Beethoven traveled to Vienna at sixteen to play for Mozart; at twenty-two, he returned to study with Haydn.
Aristocrats from all over the Empire spent the winter in Vienna, sometimes bringing their private 8 Music was an important part of court life, and a good orchestra was a 9 of prestige. Many of the nobility were excellent musicians.
Much music was heard in 10 concerts where aristocrats and wealthy commoners played 11 professional musicians. Mozart and Beethoven often earned money by performing in these intimate concerts. The nobility 12 hired servants who could 13 as musicians. An advertisement in the Vienna Gazette of 1789 14 : "Wanted, for a house of the gentry, a manservant who knows how to play the violin well."
In Vienna there was also 15 music, light and popular in 16 . Small street bands of wind and string players played at garden parties or under the windows of people 17 to throw 18 money. Haydn and Mozart wrote many outdoor entertainment 19 , 20 they called divertimentos or serenades. Vienna"s great love of music and its enthusiastic demand for new works made it the chosen city of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.