Compiled here are reviews reports notes and essays found in German-language periodicals published between 1783 and 1830. The documents are translated into English with copious notes and annotations an introductory essay and indexes of names subjects and works. This volume contains a general section and documents on specific opus numbers up to opus 54 with musical examples redrawn from the original publications. The collection brings to light contemporary perceptions of Beethoven’s music including matters such as audience setting facilities orchestra instruments and performers as well as the relationship of Beethoven’s music to theoretical and critical ideas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These documents most of which appear in English for the first time present a wide spectrum of insights into the perceptions that Beethoven’s contemporaries had of his monumental music.