In 1781, Emperor Joseph II staged a Christmas Eve keyboard duel in Vienna between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a challenger most listeners have never heard of: Muzio Clementi. The emperor called it a tie, Mozart went home fuming, and this deep dive follows the man on the other side of that contest, from a church organist job in Rome at 14 to seven isolated years on Sir Peter Beckford's Dorset estate practicing up to eight hours a day.

The episode traces Clementi's transformation from touring virtuoso to publishing and piano-manufacturing mogul in London, including the 1807 warehouse fire, his acquisition of the English rights to Beethoven's music, and his habit of editing Beethoven's scores for amateur players on small square pianos. It also explains why a figure Beethoven kept on his own music stand ended up nearly invisible to history.