BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, April 30, 1825

Beethoven’s things are being packed to move them out of the Johannesgasse apartment. Johann joins Ludwig and Nephew Karl. Ludwig, still not entirely well, asks Karl where his belongings are going. There is a storeroom in the house Johann is renting from his brother-in-law, Obermayer the baker, in the Kothgasse. The baker stores flour there, and since the finest flour is not ruined there, Beethoven’s furniture likewise will be safe from damage.

Johann would like to go with Ludwig tomorrow to see Dr. Staudenheim in order to have him explain the prescriptions that Braunhofer has written for Ludwig.

Ludwig is curious about Dembscher, who hosted the quartet concert last night. Karl tells him that Dembscher is one of the richest men in Vienna.

Ludwig hopes he won’t be as gassy today as yesterday. Karl thinks that since he ate some breakfast, he should not belch so heavily today.

Johann again tells Ludwig that he should join him at his estate in Gneixendorf. “You would become very strong and healthy.” Ludwig doesn’t want anything to do with the women there [meaning Johann’s wife Therese and her daughter.] Johann says the women there are just cooking, and otherwise do not get involved.

Temporary housekeeper Barbara Holzmann asks for the key to the cellar so the boxes can come upstairs for moving. The movers are being paid 6 florins for loading the wagon. Holzmann thinks 5 would be more reasonable. On top of that, the driver wants a tip.

She is going shopping for today’s dinner, and will be buying rice, rolls and veal. After dinner, she’s going home.

Karl mentions that Holzmann is being paid 48 kreutzers to oversee the move. Karl has one prospect for a permanent housekeeper in the Kirchengasse. He’ll also look for an officer’s widow that they spoke to earlier this month. Ludwig asks why they need a new housekeeper, since Holzmann is here. Karl tells his uncle that she is only staying a few days.

Ferdinand Piringer lets Beethoven know that he will be willing to proofread the latest copy of the Missa Solemnis, but he will need to have it brought to him. While Karl is doing that, he will also stop by Joseph Mayseder and collect the parts for the quartet op.127. [Joseph Böhm has expressed an interest in performing the quartet again.] In the meantime, Ludwig can pack the boxes up with music or papers and nail them shut for being put in storage. Johann suggests that they send Holzmann or the maid to Mayseder to collect the quartet. Johann and Karl appear to drive to see Mayseder, but they quickly return since he is at dinner just now. They left word that the parts should be brought back.

The new tenants start moving their things into the Johannesgasse apartment as Beethoven is moving out. Karl meets them: Johann Wilhelm Lembert, an actor and poet, who is very well paid. His wife is also an actress at the Court theater. His plays are popular. They seem to be splitting the apartment in two, with the door to be nailed shut between them and each taking a half.

Uncle Ludwig observes that his urine is darker today. Karl says it’s because it stayed in the bladder longer.

The cellist of the Mayseder Quartet, Joseph Merk, says that “on behalf of other players who will get their hands on the part in the future, he wanted to change the alto-clef, because most of them don’t know it any more.” [Merk is here referring to the finale of the quartet op.127. In the original score, Beethoven put the cello part in bars 153-160 and 265-272 in the alto clef. Beethoven appears to have agreed with Merk, for in the first edition the parts were changed to the treble clef, sounding an octave lower. It is unclear why Beethoven notated these sections in the alto clef in the first place, contrary to his usual practice, and some writers have suggested that they may have originally been intended for the viola part.]

Over dinner, Karl and Johann discuss the quartet, “about the joy that people expressed at it,” and they compare the three ensembles that performed it: Schuppanzigh, Mayseder, and Böhm. Karl suggests his uncle eat some greens, then continues. “Mayseder plays more brilliantly, Böhm more expressively. If [Schuppanzigh] practiced it diligently, he would play it just as well.” Ludwig asks whether they played it in tune. “It cannot be played better in tune than Mayseder played it.”

Karl laughs that Johann is eating as if he had gone hungry for a week. Johann asks whether Ludwig has had a bowel movement today. He thinks it is not good to eat too much. Ludwig says he isn’t really very hungry. But once he is in Baden, his appetite should increase, Johann thinks. He agrees with Holzmann that 5 florins is enough for the transport. It would cost more than 5 florins to haul all of this to Baden, though. Beethoven’s piano could be wrapped in mattresses and taken. The same fellow hauled it from Döbling for Beethoven. Johann tells his brother that if he came to visit on his estate, he would eat such food all the time.

Frau Holzmann has some wine heated up; she can’t tolerate anything cold. But the wine makes her happy.

The packing and loading continues through the afternoon. The wagon needs to leave precisely at 7 p.m., so Karl will go out to talk to them at about 6:15 or 6:30.

After Holzmann returns to the Bürgerspital, Karl and Johann adjourn to the White Swan restaurant and coffee house to read the newspapers. They return in the late afternoon. Karl reports that he saw Steiner’s announcement of the Overture, 2- and four-hands piano versions, and with Orchestra, and variations in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, and also in the Wiener Zeitung. [These are the Name Day Overture in C major, op.115, and the “Kakadu” Variations for Piano Trio, op.121a. The advertisement appeared in yesterday’s Augsburg newspaper, and the Wiener Zeitung ad in today’s paper will be discussed below.]

Johann notes that it is very warm outside, 16 degrees Reaumur [about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. At 3 p.m., the temperature was a fair amount higher, around 77 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the May 3, 1825 Wiener Zeitung at 436.]

Ludwig wonders what he should do about supper, with Holzmann gone. Karl says he can send out to the White Swan; they have soup there still, and it’s good. The maid can add a roll to it. Karl confirms that it’s very warm, with no wind.

Karl sends off the transport wagon to Obermayer’s house. Most likely Johann and Karl supervise the unloading into the storeroom of the majority of Ludwig’s furniture and papers. Some of what’s left will go to Baden with Beethoven once he has secured a place there, and the remainder will most likely go to the new apartment in the City.

Conversation Book 88, 31v-37v.

The Wiener Zeitung for today (Nr.98) at 427 includes an advertisement from S.A. Steiner & Co. for a “Grand Overture in C Major by Ludwig van Beethoven. 115th Work.” This is the “Name-Day” Overture. Steiner offers it in four different formats: Full orchestra in parts; full orchestra in score; piano solo, and piano four hands. Steiner also offers the Adagio, Variations and Rondo for Piano Trio, op.121a (today better known as the “Kakadu” variations).