BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, February 8, 1822

Today’s Wiener Zeitung is packed with ads for music from Weber’s Der Freischütz, a testament to the fervor that has swept Vienna for this opera. Weigl again offers fifteen numbers from the opera for piano solo. Artaria advertises an arrangement of the Overture for both piano solo and piano four hands, as well as a waltz and three sets of variations on selections from the work. S.A. Steiner & Co. is selling the original Berlin arrangement for piano and voice of eleven selections from Der Freischütz. Nearly half a page of the newspaper (which is only 12 pages long) is filled with nothing but Freischütz musical offerings.

Our next update will be February 11.