These four men could never have stood together. Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750, six years before Mozart was born; Mozart died in December 1791, when Beethoven was twenty; Beethoven died in March 1827, when Wagner was thirteen. The set spans 1685 to 1883 — very nearly two centuries — and for most of that stretch only one of them was at work. What joins them is paper rather than acquaintance. Baron Gottfried van Swieten came back to Vienna from diplomatic service in Berlin with a collection of Bach and Handel manuscripts, and from 1782 he invited Mozart to Sunday gatherings at noon to go through them. "I go every Sunday at twelve o'clock to the Baron van Swieten, where nothing is played but Handel and Bach," Mozart wrote to his father. He transcribed fugues for instrumental ensembles, and the early results are dry in a way his own music never is — then the lesson lands properly in the C minor Mass of 1783 and the chorale prelude in The Magic Flute. Van Swieten sent the same invitation to the twenty-three-year-old Beethoven in December 1794, and received the dedication of the First Symphony in 1801. Beethoven reached Wagner the same way: the fourteen-year-old heard the Seventh Symphony at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in January 1828 and the Ninth that March, then sat down and made his own piano transcription of it. A relay, not a group — and what was handed on each time was a score.

Four separate figures, each identifiable without a label: Bach in his wig and a dark red coat with sheet music in hand; Mozart in red, baton raised and the other hand lifted; Beethoven in a dark blue coat over an orange waistcoat, holding music and a pen; Wagner in a velvet cap and green coat with a score. They suit a shelf group more than a battle line, and inside the Tradition range that makes an easy diorama — the composers on a mantel or side table above The Bar at the Officer's Mess and The Snooker Table at the Officer's Mess, the two rooms where the Victorian evening was actually spent. If you would rather have the historical join, Bach's king is in stock: Bach played for Frederick the Great at Potsdam on 7 May 1747, improvised a three-voice fugue on a theme the king set him, and sent back The Musical Offering four months later. The Potsdam Giant Grenadiers were the regiment Frederick's father had assembled and Frederick himself cut down to a battalion as an unnecessary expense. The father collected giants; the son set fugue subjects.

Model: T108 / Tradition of London / 54mm (1/32) scale / 4 figure set

All hand painted Toy Soldier sets packed in the Classic Tradition Red Boxes. All Toy Soldiers cast in quality white metal, and individually hand painted in gloss enamels.

Please allow 2-3 weeks delivery.