Peter Stadlen

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Peter Stadlen (born 14 July 1910; died 20 January 1996) lived in Austria. He was a composer, pianist, and musicologist, specializing in the study and interpretation of Beethoven.

He was married to Hedi Stadlen and left two sons: Nicholas, a commercial law barrister and QC (who holds the record for the longest speech in British legal history, 119 days), and Godfrey, a senior civil servant in the Home Office.

He spent many years trying to track down Beethoven's metronome, an invention which Beethoven had commissioned. It was believed that the weight on his metronome was faulty as some of the speeds written on his pieces seemed incorrect. Peter wished to ascertain the make-up of this weight and to see the correct speeds which Beethoven himself had intended. However, after finally tracking it down to small antiques shop only to discover that, although the metronome itself was intact, the weight itself was missing.