Beethoven interviews?

[PDG]

What I`m wondering is: Did anyone ever sit Beethoven down, & conduct any kind of an interview with him? Obviously (sadly) his increasing deafness would have meant most things being dealt with in a written exchange, but did any journalist ever try & arrange such a meeting for this purpose. Beethoven was restless by nature, but he sat still for portraits to be done (by the way, have a look at Tony`s `Beethoven Paintings` thread - very interesting), so some kind of interview cannot have been out of the question. All we seem to be left with are quotes, misquotes & extracts from letters.

Beethoven was famous throughout Europe by 1803, so did no publisher, from that point, see the potential in views on the master, coming straight from the master`s mouth? From what we know about Beethoven, we can safely surmize that his possible remuneration from any book or newspaper deal would have, at least, interested him.

Also, there was potential for any journalist to make historical fame for him/herself into the bargain. I just can`t believe that no in-depth interviews were ever done - what enthralling reading they would have made.

[Michael]

In the conversation books which B used towards the latter part of his life, when he was profoundly deaf, there are a lot of questions written down for him, to which he replied verbally. This means you have pages and pages of one-sided interviews - questions only! A lot of B's answers can be inferred from the content of the next question but those notebooks must be among the most frustrating documents ever written.
I believe, in some cases, B does actually reply in writing for some reason or other. But that's as near to an interview as you'll get.

Michael

[Peter]

Perhaps the concept of the interview as we know it simply did not exist - I'm not sure when the celebrity interview first came in.

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'Man know thyself'