BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, January 28, 1825
The housekeeper goes early to buy more wood, which will be delivered tomorrow.
Beethoven makes a note in his conversation book with the title of the two volume set of variations on Anton Diabelli’s theme, the first volume being Beethoven’s op.120 set of 33 variations, and the second the variations by 50 other Austrian composers. [This might be related to the question of assigning opus numbers to the new works, which will be discussed later today.]
Karl reminds his uncle that the postal coach to St. Petersburg goes tomorrow.
Ludwig complains about something unspecified that Karl has not done, and Karl responds, “I was ready every day, but you never mentioned a thing about it.”
Karl distracts his uncle with some musical gossip, which may be from Brother Johann. Count Palffy [who had been unable to pay the musicians at the Theater an der Wien] won 180,000 florins gambling with Count Schönborn, who paid him 100,000 immediately. Without paying his people so much as a groschen, Palffy absconded for Munich and is now gambling there. [Theodore Albrecht observes that Palffy’s departure was not mentioned in the Wiener Zeitung column of the comings and goings of the nobility. This suggests that Palffy’s hitting the road to Munich may have been covered up through silence by theater-loving Joseph Bernard.]
Rossini has now been horribly put down in two French music journals. [No such put downs have been located to date, so this may be idle gossip without a basis. However, Rossini did leave France under something of a cloud.]
The current cook told Johann that she doesn’t like wine at all. But she nevertheless drinks some. Johann clarifies that she doesn’t drink wine in the evenings but does at mid-day of the next day. However, it’s better that she not be coddled.
The Italians [Domenico Barbaja, whose lease of the Kärntnertor Theater is up] are leaving. Conradin Kreutzer (1780-1849) has revised his opera Libussa and sent it to Naples. [It has in fact not yet gone to Naples, and still needs to be translated into Italian.]
Copyist Ferdinand Wolanek arrives at the apartment. He has some questions about the music that Ludwig resolves for him. He then goes into the next room to continue copying.
Nephew Karl asks whether Uncle Ludwig is writing the quartet for Haslinger. Ludwig says no, it has been sold to Schott.
The cook says that the turnips have gone bad. Karl has talked to the former housekeeper Barbara Holzmann recently, and she still thinks that Frau Sartory, the wife of a schoolteacher, who they interviewed in February of 1824, would be a good addition to the household. Ludwig thinks that is a good idea, and Karl jokingly responds in a colloquial expression that they shall “open the bottle in accordance with all of the rules of bottle-opening.”
Once again, Ludwig needs a salve that dries something [possibly a corn on his foot] out. Karl then launches into a discussion of the irregular forms of the verb to be in German and English.
Wolanek returns to the room with another question; he counted 67 bars after the forte, not 68. Ludwig explains what to do.
Someone comes to the door. It is a representative of the Jewish religious community, which would like to commission a choral work from Beethoven for the opening of their new temple in the next year or so. Although the Emperor approved building the temple, they are having trouble getting the text for the cantata approved by the censor. They have come to the conclusion that if Beethoven were to sign a letter asking for the approval of the text, that would help. Until it’s approved by the censor, they cannot announce it. They give Beethoven the text, and ask that if he desires any changes, to let them know. The author has also written an introductory chorus for it. Because of the religious circumstances, there cannot be any female voices. Beethoven should just cross out anything that doesn’t seem right to him. It would be very pleasing if Beethoven said something about it to the censor. [The representative may be the Baron Eskeles, whose family Ludwig and Karl knew well. The conversation book contains nothing in the way of introductions, so it was someone already familiar to the Beethovens.]
Karl notices that the laundry has not been done for almost a week and asks whether the washerwoman who was supposed to come today still has not come.
Later in the day, Brother Johann arrives. The agent for Schott, Fries, asked for all of the works to be brought at once, because they cannot send individual items. Ludwig asks whether he has to finish proofreading everything now? Johann says, “If you aren’t too tired.”
Tomorrow, Ignaz Schuppanzigh will speak with Franz Nehammer of the Musikverein about getting the Landständisher Saal for the Akademie concerts and setting the dates. Ludwig asks who Nehammer is, and Johann tells him he is the secretary of the organization. “An admirer of yours.”
The three of them have a light supper of rolls and the leftover venison. 6 rolls cost 25 kreutzers, but the housekeeper figured the cost for 10 rolls. So far as Karl can tell, she computed the cost at 3 kreutzers per roll, rather than four.
Johann reminds Ludwig that he needs to send Schott the opus numbers for the Missa Solemnis, Ninth Symphony, the Consecration of the House Overture, and the set of six bagatelles. [Ludwig does not get around to this for another two months.] Ludwig is unsure where he left off with his opus numbers. Johann mentions that Steiner has Ludwig’s “most recent work,” an Overture, he thinks. [Steiner had published the Variations on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu,” as op.121 a few months earlier as “Beethoven’s most recent work.” In the intervening two months, Ludwig will forget this important comment, and will assign op.121 to the Opferlied as well as the Kakadu Variations, resulting in the clumsy modern usage of 121a and 121b for these two works.] Johann then departs.
A bit later, someone comes to the door, and Karl deals with it. Beethoven asks who it was, and Karl says it was someone looking for a contribution. [Whether this was a contribution to a beggar, or a charitable organization is unspecified, but former housekeeper Barbara Holzmann was known to be a soft touch for both.]
Conversation Book 83, 18v-24r.
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