Haydn seems to have been sufficiently skilled as a keyboard player to have given lessons on it at various times. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, however, he made no attempt to parade himself as a virtuoso, or indeed to play in public at all. His piano music suggests, nevertheless, that he valued the keyboard as a private companion, for his music for these instruments has an intimate, conversational and often improvisational tone. This sets it apart from his symphonies, as well as from the sonatas of Mozart and the early-middle period examples of Beethoven, which are more evidently aimed at an audience.