BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, April 29, 1825
Today and tomorrow are very busy days for Beethoven, since he needs to remove from his apartment in the Johannesgasse, his lease having been up five days ago. But he is still not feeling well. Nephew Karl comes by reminding the maid that she is to make nothing but salad with eggs for Uncle Ludwig. For mid-day dinner, he ought to have beefsteak brought in rather than chopped beef because it will give him a good deal of strength. Karl has arranged for the barber to come give Ludwig a haircut tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. [Whether he planned to attend Mayseder’s concert tonight, or this is just in preparation to go to Baden is unclear.] Beethoven had wanted the barber to come earlier, but though he had made an appointment, he was sick.
Ludwig is not interested in eating. But Dr. Braunhofer told him he needs to eat something in order to force the gas down his intestinal tract. Ludwig asks what he should eat, and Karl repeats, beef steak at mid-day dinner.
The plan is to put some of Beethoven’s things in storage at a place not far from Brother Johann’s apartment while he is in Baden. Johann will get the information tomorrow. They can load up the wagon of his brother-in-law, Leopold Obermayer the baker, and they can take the things that will go to Baden in one wagon load, and the old woman, housekeeper Barbara Holzmann [back again working for Beethoven, at least temporarily, to oversee his change of apartments and move to Baden] can ride along with it.
Beethoven will also keep an apartment in Vienna for when he has to come into the City on business over the summer. That will be some furnished rooms at 1009 Krugerstrasse on the second floor [third floor American], to the right of the staircase landing, and Karl has made the arrangements. Johann is fine with the fact he is taking that. He was there and says that the administrator says there are tables and chests and everything; nothing is lacking. Johann will have the lease agreement sent to him so Ludwig need not trouble himself in his ill state. Ludwig’s things can be arranged and put into order at his place.
Johann again tries to convince Ludwig to stay with him in Gneixendorf. “Everything will be for you and yours.” Ludwig is sticking with the plan to go to Baden for the summer.
Violinist Joseph Mayseder stops by in the late morning to invite the composer to attend the concert being given tonight of the quartet op.127. “I wanted to invite you for this evening; we shall perform your heavenly new quartet at Herr Dembscher’s.” [Dembscher, a Court official, held salons regularly on Friday nights until May of 1825 when he moved and switched them to Thursday nights, according to the German editors and Prof. Albrecht.] Beethoven asks whether they will do it justice; Mayseder says, “It will be performed well.” How many rehearsals have they had? “We rehearsed it two times.” [He probably means that they have rehearsed it twice since his previous performances of the quartet on April 15.] Beethoven asks whether congratulations are in order, and Mayseder confirms that he was married just a short time ago. [Beethoven does not attend the concert, though Karl and Johann do. They will report back to him on the festivities.]
Ludwig continues to fret about his health after Mayseder leaves. Johann tries to convince him the situation is no longer serious; if there were anything to fear, Dr. Braunhofer would still be coming every day.
Karl asks whether his uncle would like to have some beer. Ludwig thought he had been told he is not to have alcohol in his convalescence. Karl believes that the doctor told Johann that he could.
Karl is looking forward to seeing how Mayseder performs the quartet. [He has heard Schuppanzigh and Böhm play it so far.]
Karl tried to get the pastor to sign the affidavit that Karl is still alive, but the pastor initially refused since the landlord’s testimonial was not with it. But Karl argued with him and convinced him to sign at last.
Housekeeper Barbara Holzmann writes in the conversation book to lay out the plans for tomorrow’s move and the move to Baden. Her writing is difficult to decipher since although she is literate, she writes phonetically for the most part and on the page it looks like gibberish. However, our determined collaborator Birthe Kibsgaard, carefully sounding out Holzmann’s words, has been able to make out what she likely means. Like Schuppanzigh, Holzmann sometimes addresses Beethoven in the third person, which is ignored here for clarity. “Tomorrow at 6 a.m. a wagon will come to take the household furnishings away to a store room in your Herr Brother’s house, and I shall come too. When you are going to Baden [in the next few days to look for an apartment], then I could probably go with you, to prepare everything straight away so that one knows what will have to go out there.”
Later in the afternoon, Dr. Braunhofer comes to see Beethoven, while Holzmann is still there. He agrees that Beethoven should try to go out to the country soon. “The fresh air will give you strength; taking walks here [in the City] is fatiguing.” Beethoven is concerned about whether he will be able to tolerate fresh milk while he is out in the country. The doctor thinks that in the country he will be able to do so. “All sick people and even the smallest children tolerate milk. One must try everything.” [Prof. Albrecht wonders whether some of Beethoven’s digestive problems may have been related to lactose intolerance.]
Beethoven relates his lack of hunger today. Braunhofer suggests that tomorrow he should try an egg yolk with cream and sugar to stimulate his appetite. Ludwig will certainly need a woman with him to look after his affairs.
The medicine that Braunhofer gave him yesterday did not have an effect until now. Ludwig asks what kinds of fruit he should eat. “Plums, apples, etc. with sugar, but no spices.” Braunhofer goes through his usual questions as to where he is feeling pain, how his night was, and when it was that he had a reaction to the medication. Beethoven’s response is satisfactory to him. He is belching a lot.
After Braunhofer leaves, Ludwig asks Karl what it was he is supposed to have tomorrow. Karl repeats, a cup of cream, with the yolk of an egg, and sugar. “I believe that the poor diet that you have enjoyed your whole life has severely affected your intestines, and that the Doctor’s treatment could be good, because he says that the condition cannot be cured all at once.”
Karl and Johann leave for the Mayseder Concert at Dembscher’s apartment. Although the quartet is to be played twice, they only stay for the first rendition, having heard it several times before. On their return, Karl tells his Uncle that the quartet went well. In between performances, the guests are having dinner, and then the quartet will play it again. “They’ll be there until midnight,” says Johann.
Someone, probably Dembscher, wanted Johann to bring Ludwig to the concert, “more than anything in the world.” Ludwig asks whether someone [perhaps Schuppanzigh or Lichnowsky] was there, and Johann says he was not invited. There were many court councilors there, and quite a few strangers he had never before seen. [The quartet is not known to be performed again, privately or publicly, until the Schuppanzigh Quartet plays it once more on September 13, 1825.]
Karl is impressed that everything was served on silver.
Conversation Book 88, 26v-31r. Tomorrow will be an early morning of packing and moving, and Karl stays with his uncle tonight, if he has moved out by now.
Prince Nikolai Galitzin writes to Beethoven in French from St. Petersburg today. “I have many thanks to give you, worthy Monsieur de Beethoven, for sending me the precious package with the sublime quartet that I have just received! [Galitzin had commissioned op.127, plus the next two quartets.] I have already had it performed several times and I recognize in it all the genius of the Master, and when the performance is more perfect, the charm will be even greater.”
“I have also just received your two letters, and am delighted to hear that the other two quartets will soon be finished. Tell me the time frame in which you would like me to send the money, and as I myself am going to spend a few months in the country, could I ask you to offer me the consolation of having in my possession at least one of the two quartets by the time I depart, which will be in two months. I beg you to tell me how much short the payment was from the 50 ducats promised, so that I can send it to you. It is natural that I should bear the costs of exchange.”
“I also beg you to send me your Symphony, which I am very keen to have. I am writing to M.M. Henikstein [sic] to ask him to pay you your expenses. In a few days we will perform your new quartet with Bernhard Romberg, who has been here for a month. Do not delay, I beg you, in having it printed; such a beautiful masterpiece must not remain hidden for a single moment.”
“May your health allow you to soon put the finishing touches on the other quartets, which I am impatient to receive. Write to me always at the same address. Receive the assurance of my very sincere friendship, Yours truly, P. Nicolas Galitzin.”
Brandenburg Letter 1962; Albrecht Letter 405.
S.A. Steiner & Co. advertises the publication of two new compositions by Beethoven’s former pupil, Carl Czerny, in today’s Wiener Zeitung, Nr.97 at 424, the Variations on an English March, for the pianoforte, op.81; and the Grand Exercice pour le Pianoforte, op.82. No description such as we usually see accompanying announcements of Czerny compositions is included in this ad, but Steiner also advertises 19 other older Czerny works, nearly filling a column of the newspaper.
The Grand Exercise op.82 is here performed by an unidentified person: