BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, July 23, 1824

Beethoven is in Vienna today, and is about to return to Baden. He writes a note to the Leipzig publisher Heinrich Albert Probst to tell him that the various works that Probst requested have been copied and proofread. The letter is now lost, but its date and contents are known from Beethoven’s followup letter on Monday from Baden, Brandenburg Letter 1853.

We haven’t talked much about Rossini lately, but his popularity in Vienna continues unabated. By way of example, in today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.167) at 703, Weigl’s Art and Music Shop offers Rossini’s opera Der Barbier von Sevilla in a panoply of formats: piano solo (with German and Italian text), piano solo without words, small format piano reduction, piano four hands, violin duet, and for flute. The Overture is also offered for piano solo, piano four hands, violin quartet and flute quartet.

Our next update will be July 26.