BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, April 16, 1824
Today is Good Friday, but Beethoven appears not to go to church, nor does Nephew Karl, though he would not have classes at the University today. But Karl does go out and about and then returns home in the afternoon.
Karl tells his Uncle Ludwig about the fine scene at Brother Johann’s place yesterday. Johann had drafted his Complaint to the police regarding his wife Therese’s infidelities, and he put it in his briefcase. While he was talking to Count Lichnowsky about the problems at the Theater an der Wien due to the change of concert plans, Johann’s wife Therese snuck into the briefcase and seized the paper and ran out the door. Johann noticed it and ran after her and found her reading it next door at her brother’s place. Johann snatched it away from her. “Now came the wailing and gnashing of teeth, to which, naturally, he remained deaf. Now we shall see.”
The women [Therese and her daughter Amalie] threw themselves at Johann’s feet, and the girl vouched for her mother, that she would not keep male companions any more. But now the issue is money, about which Johann is inflexible. In the marriage contract, he promised her half of his possessions. But she now controls more than half, so he has to use threats to get it returned to him. Only then can he make her go away for good. Karl thinks she will surely be locked up. “She has often been seen with her lover.” Karl notes that Schindler was quoted as a witness in the Complaint, and that upset her. “You, YOU want to testify against me?”
Unger and Preisinger will be coming to see Beethoven later today; they have worked things out with Kärntnertor Theater manager Louis Duport, and he will let them take part in Beethoven’s Akademie concert after all.
A thunder shower begins in the mid to late afternoon. Karl says the cloudburst is good, and the lightning cleanses the air.
Karl asks whether his uncle liked the review of Herr Esslair, the touring actor who has been in Vienna recently giving performances. [The review of Esslair in Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell printed in the Wiener Zeitschrift of April 15 at 394 said that his melodramatic delivery of lines might be effective, but there is no truth in it.] Karl says he wishes his uncle could have heard Esslair, “as beautifully as he delivered this pair of lines, “With – this arrow – I would have shot you through.” [crescendo to ff] “At the beginning, still with a hesitating tone, because he still doesn’t quite believe: ‘With – this arrow,’ then more courageously, ‘I,’ and finally enraged, ‘would have shot you through.’ And then with all the feeling of a loving father: ‘If I had shot my dear child.’ In his last guest role, Esslair is said to have played to the reviewers like crazy.” Ludwig asks whether the review was written by the editor, Schickh. Karl is quite certain it was not, since it was signed ‘zz.’
Conversation Book 62, 10r-12v.
In Paris today, on Good Friday [Charfreytage], the third Concert spirituel is held. This concert in the overcrowded hall of the Royal Music Academy opens with a Haydn symphony. The reviewing correspondent in the May 15, 1824 Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung at 122 felt that the performance of the Agnus Dei from Beethoven’s Mass in C, op.86, like the Benedictus in the first concert on Monday, April 12, didn’t make much of an impact. Beethoven’s Symphony No.2 in D major was supposed to have been performed, but a symphony by Haydn in E major had to be substituted because at the last dress rehearsal there wasn’t sufficient time to practice it properly. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.34 (August 19, 1824) at 551.
Beethoven’s Mass in C is also performed on this day in Strasbourg at the cathedral, under Kapellmeister Joseph Wackenthaler (1795-1869), “which was heard with pleasure.” Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.39 (September 23, 1824) at 630. Wackenthaler was also a virtuoso organist who arranged the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for organ or harmonium, which can be heard here as played by Michael Hendron on harmonium:
In Milan, Beethoven’s oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, op.85, is performed today in Italian translation, by a group of mostly amateurs, led on piano by Costanza Casella, the student of Karl Mozart, eldest son of the great composer. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.31 (July 29, 1824) at 512.
According to the Wiener Zeitschrift, Nr.107 (September 4, 1824) this performance of Beethoven’s Cristo sull’Oliveto, is given “to the loudest applause. Twenty singers, including some of the foremost of this capital, accompanied by piano and cello, had so gotten into the spirit of this beautiful composition that it was a joy to hear the chorus perform in the author’s spirit with precision and genuine expression. The reputation of this work had already spread so much during rehearsals that amateurs flocked from every side to take part in the performance. The characteristic tragic symphony immediately aroused the attention of the large public who had flocked there and received sincere applause.”
“The first aria of Christ: L’alma mia gih senote, sento, refuted the prejudice of those who think one must go abroad to find justice done to Beethoven’s vocal works; By this we mean the Professori di Canto. How beautifully the words: Padre, il Figlio umil t’invoca are expressed in song! What a feeling of pain and strengthening confidence in the omnipotence of the Father! The jubilation expressed by Seraphino’s aria: Su celebrate mortali a gara il Redentor with the choral accompaniment: Felice siete redenti spirti, evidently spread across the auditorium, which was enraptured by the divine sounds of so many masterful passages, and especially applauded with enthusiasm the artistic: Ma gusi per l’empio di Dio lo adegno lo thenerà.
The duet full of supernatural emotion: Oh padre in me tu spegni il giusto tuo furor, filled everyone with devotion; the chiaroscuro, which presides over the sayings of the god-man accompanied by the seraph, seemed to be the sound of the sphere of a better world. The chorus of soldiers: L’iniquo andava al morte surprised with its characteristic simplicity and consistent attitude. It was sung beautifully by the enthusiastic dilettantes and the passage in particular: Sfuggir, sfuggir no non potrà created a very unique impression thanks to the intensified expression. The chorus that followed later was even more impressive: Mirate! l’Empio è qui di Giuda esser vuol Rè. The shocking effect at the point where, while the disciples were wailing: Pietà di noi, the soldiers always shouted in annoyance: prendetelo, legatelo, surpassed everything that was had been heard; the public seemed to be immeasurably moved. The trio, although individually rich, appears as a whole to be the weakest piece of the oratorio. Especially when the three voices come together in the final tempo, it has a touch of too worldly color, which is made even brighter by the many notes of the bass. The chorus: Sù, sù, prendete il traditore, restored the lost balance. What majesty lies in the divine song, interrupted by the shouts of the warriors and the lamentations of the disciples: Brevi sono i miei tormenti. This is true greatness, true dignity! Simplicity for thinking, fullness for feeling. The beautiful final fugue: Voi nel eiel elette sfere fate il giubilo eccheggiar fits in appropriately with the whole and is filled with jubilation. People confessed that they were not aware of any similar impression, and everyone wanted to have the entire work reproduced in full that same evening. However, only the choruses, which are actually the highlight of the work, could be repeated.”
“Finally, the news is that this oratorio will soon be published in Italian by Ricordi.” [In 1825, Ricordi will indeed publish this Italian version of opus 85, titled Cristo sull’Oliveto, with the translation credited to Francesco Sal. Kandler.]
That same oratorio was also given a “very powerful performance” (presumably in its original German) in Riga, Latvia today by a group of amateurs, for the benefit of musicians’ widows. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.42 (October 14, 1824) at 683.