BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, December 20, 1822

Beethoven writes today to Leipzig publisher Carl Friedrich Peters. Cornered by Peters’ angry letter of December 16th, Beethoven is forced to admit that nothing of what he has repeatedly promised Peters is finished. He promises that the songs and marches will leave Vienna next week [they do not in fact get sent until February, 1823.] With respect to the piano bagatelles, he promised four and he has six that fit together in a group. [These would be the same six he just tried to sell to Diabelli for a higher price.] Reluctantly, he would divide them up, but he also offers Peters the option of making an additional payment to get all six.

Peters apparently accused Beethoven of dealing with other publishers, which makes the composer defensive, and he denies that he has given anything to anyone else in the meantime. “It is impossible to listen to all requests and fulfill them immediately; there are too many of them.” What publishers want is not always in accordance with the author’s wishes. “If my salary weren’t entirely without salary, I would write nothing but operas, symphonies, church music and quartets.”

Beethoven suggests that if Peters wants a smaller work, he could have the variations for 2 oboes and English horn (or two violins and viola) WoO 28, on the Mozart theme “Là ci darem la mano”. Beethoven had already offered this set of variations to Peters on June 5, asking 30 ducats for them. Now he offers them together with the Gratulations-Menuett for Orchestra WoO 3 for 40 ducats. Beethoven adds a postscript to “Answer soon, you are not bound by anything – so that you get what is yours.”

Brandenburg Letter 1516, Anderson Letter 1111. This letter was last known to be held in a private collection in England, and the text is derived from the transcription made by Emily Anderson and now held by the Beethovenhaus in Bonn.

Beethoven also writes to his former student and current English agent, Ferdinand Ries. He accepts with pleasure the proposal to write a new symphony for the Philharmonic Society, even if the fee [50 pounds] cannot compare to that offered by other nations. If he weren’t so poor, he would do it for free! “If I were only in London, how much would I write for the Philharmonic Society!” Beethoven declares that if he were to get his health back, which at least has improved, he would be able to satisfy all the requests from all over Europe and even from North America. [The Boston Handel and Haydn Society is believed to have offered Beethoven a commission to compose an oratorio on biblical texts.] The letter is lost, and is known only from the portion reprinted in Wegeler/Ries at page 154.

In Bremen, a Madame Sengstack (neé Grund) gives a concert today along with her younger brother, Eduard Grund the ducal Concertmaster of Saxe-Meinigen. Along with an aria by Mozart and the Cavatina from Der Freischütz, “Und ob die Wolke sich verhüllt,” and violin music by Ludwig Spohr, Beethoven’s Second Symphony is “performed with precision,” according to the report in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of February 12, 1823, Nr. 7 at col. 107. The symphony is conducted by August Gerke, music director of Kiev.

Beethoven’s Second Symphony is here performed by The Hanover Band on period instruments: