BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO: Monday, April 28, 1823

Brother Johann and Anton Schindler visit Beethoven in the early afternoon. Johann thinks that if Pacini in Paris doesn’t want the Diabelli Variations, likely Lissner in St. Petersburg will, but it should only be sold to one of them. [Johann probably learned about Lissner from Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who has spent many years in Russia.] Ludwig totals up the amounts expected for various works and comes up with 550 florins. These works include the bagatelles op.119/1-6, the Diabelli Variations, the Opferlied op.121b and the Bundeslied op.122.

Ludwig invites Schindler to stay for dinner; they are having stewed venison with raspberry sauce. Before they can eat, Matthäus Andreas Stein comes back with the carpenter Johann Jacob Goll to finish repairing Beethoven’s Broadwood piano. Ludwig apparently asks whether Stein might take Nephew Karl on as an apprentice, but Stein doesn’t accept boys for lessons. Goll reverses the soundboard so that the strings lie below it, which will made the sound of the piano much louder. [Goll had obtained an Imperial patent on this process for five years in 1822.]

Schindler oversalts his venison. He notes that Count Ferdinand Palffy would like to buy the Theater in the Leopoldstadt and refurbish and enlarge it. The old woman [housekeeper Barbara Holzmann] will go into the city and get the address of a prospective servant.

Copyist Wenzel Schlemmer would like several gulden per page for paper for the copies of the Missa Solemnis. In four weeks, he will have all six copies of the Mass finished. Schindler leaves after dinner, with Stein and Goll still working.

Stein notes that the soundboard of the piano is split. Goll will come back tomorrow in the afternoon. If it is to be transported to Hetzendorf, Stein suggests it have straw placed inside, or else it should be secured with screws in its case. Stein can arrange to have it transported for 8 florins, and he will oversee the work. “If it is placed well on the wagon, nothing can happen.”

After Stein and Goll leave, young composer Louis Schlösser from Darmstadt visits, with an unidentified person. Schlösser asks when he can pick up a letter of recommendation to Cherubini and Maurice Schlesinger from Beethoven. Schlösser had also loaned Beethoven some of his compositions on a previous visit, and asked how he liked them. He has also written many songs. Schlösser complains about it being so difficult to get new compositions performed. He has written a symphony that he would like to get performed in Paris. Beethoven would like to see that as well, but Schlösser says it is not quite finished. If Beethoven has any commissions to take to Paris, Schlösser would be happy to take them.

The unknown person, who is acquainted with Caspar Bauer, the Esterházy emissary to Britain, says that Bauer has written to him saying that he will be able to report good things to Beethoven soon. Bauer intends to return to Vienna at the end of May. Schlösser and the other guest depart.

Conversation Book 31, 8r-14r, 15v.