from provincial orchestras from the area. The double basses included the world famous Domenico Dragonetti, who had known Beethoven and was then 82, but was still an able performer. He was dead within less than a year. Opening celebrations The Beethovenfest (Beethoven Festival) started on Sunday 10 August 1845. Louis Spohr, who had known Beethoven, conducted the Missa solemnis and the 9th Symphony that evening. On the morning of the unveiling, Tuesday 12 August, the Mass in C major was performed in the Cathedral. Then the official unveiling was held. It was attended by a large number of prominent figures: King Frederick William IV of Prussia and his consort; Queen Victoria (as part of her first continental visit since acceding to the throne 8 years earlier) and Prince Albert; Archduke Friedrich of Austria; the composers Hector Berlioz, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles and Félicien David; the conductors Charles Hallé and Sir George Smart; the baritones Josef Staudigl and Johann Baptist Pischek (1814-1873); the sopranos Jenny Lind and Pauline Viardot; and Lola Montez. Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, who had both written major works for the piano to raise funds for the monument, were unable to be present. Frédéric Chopin declined to attend as he detested bombastic public ceremonial. Richard Wagner did not attend, but he was certainly aware of the event, as he wrote to Liszt a week before the opening, proposing the erection of a similar statue to Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. A parchment signed by all the visiting dignitaries was sealed in a lead casket inside the monument. This was followed by an afternoon concert: Liszt played the Emperor Concerto and conducted the Fifth Symphony, and Spohr led the Coriolan Overture, an aria from the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, and the quartet and finale from Fidelio. It was originally proposed that Berlioz's Requiem would be played; Berlioz insisted that he, and only he, conduct the work if it were to be played at all, but this did not please the Bonn committee, so the plan was dropped. That evening there was a spectacular fireworks display. The next day, Wednesday 13 August, there was a concert lasting four hours: it included Liszt's Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn (given twice, once without the royal guests, and again after their arrival), Beethoven's Egmont overture, a piano concerto by Weber, Leonora’s aria