The violinist and composer Louis Spohr witnessed a rehearsal of the work, and wrote: "On account of his deafness there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist which had formerly been so greatly admired. In "forte" passages the poor deaf man pounded on the keys until the strings jangled, and in "piano" he played so softly that whole groups of notes were omitted, so that the music was unintelligible unless one could look into the pianoforte part. I was deeply saddened at so hard a fate."