BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, July 7, 1826

Beethoven makes a quick shopping note:

• quills
• rose water

Later in the day, unpaid assistant Karl Holz comes to see Beethoven. Beethoven would like to change the wallpaper in his apartment. Holz knows a paper hanger who lives nearby; he will ask this fellow to come see Beethoven. He might take over the whole project.

Holz mentions that yesterday [July 6] “La dame blanche” [The White Lady] was performed in its German version for the first time in Vienna. Beethoven asks what that is; Holz tells him it’s an opera by François Adrien Boieldieu. “It has some beautiful things; however, it is thought that he is paying homage to fashion taste in this latest work, and sometimes copies Rossini.” Young Tobias [Haslinger] is going to publish it. Beethoven asks when Haslinger is going to start doing business under his own name, rather than under the name of Sigmund Anton Steiner. Piano maker Conrad Graf told Holz that Haslinger will make it public soon.

The housekeeper, still Marie Stiegel, informs them that she got Pressburger sausages for dinner, which are supposed to be the best kind. But she doesn’t have sauce, so Holz asks whether Beethoven has mustard.

Holz mentions that Steiner (whom he calls “the old Tobias”) came to his office and asked why he never shows up any more. He also asked about Beethoven. “I answered: I thought you would not ask about him anymore.” Steiner says he is in his vault every morning. He knows some languages but, Holz jokes, Tobias does not even know German.

Beethoven asks about the status of his pension with the Kinsky estate, which is handled by the notary Walcha, and asks Holz to arrange for Walcha to come see him. Holz says he won’t be able to get him to come until tomorrow. Maybe it would be better to make an appointment with him for Sunday [July 9.] Holz says he will see Walcha in the coffee house in the city.

Beethoven is annoyed that he still has not received the copies of the string quartet op.127, which Schott’s had published in Mainz back in March (parts) and June (full score). But Beethoven won’t need the full score before Schott’s gets around to sending it.

Holz asks what is happening regarding the piano duet version of the Grosse Fuge; is Anton Halm still going to write it? Or is Mathias Artaria forgetting about it completely? Beethoven tells him that Artaria still wants it, and may suggest that he will write a version himself rather than try to fix Halm’s arrangement.

Beethoven asks if Holz is still proofreading the parts of the quartet op.130 that Artaria is publishing. Holz says that he told Artaria not to send the parts to him any more, but directly to Beethoven instead.

Holz tells Beethoven that “The first quartet [op.127] is already being studied with hellish diligence by several professional quartet players.”

Holz says that he read something Beethoven refers to in the Morgenblatt newspaper. [This may be an article about Beethoven’s friend soprano Henriette Sontag in Paris, in the July 5 issue at 635.]

Beethoven wonders what honorarium he might get from the King of Prussia for the dedication of the Ninth Symphony. Holz rather sourly says, “Money will hardly come out of it; probably a brilliant box or something of that sort, if not even a medal, which actually does not cost as much.”

Beethoven asks whether there has been any word from Prince Nikolai Galitzin about the payment for the quartet op.130. Holz says that the courier, Augustin Lipscher, returned from St. Petersburg yesterday, but Holz has not seen him yet.

Beethoven mentions that he has not heard anything back from Maurice Schlesinger in Paris about the new quartet, op.131. Holz suggests that Schlesinger will take his time.

Mylord [Ignaz Schuppanzigh] says that pianist Dorothea Ertmann would like to hear a quartet; she will even pay for it.

Beethoven writes some music [G-sharp; A-double-sharp; G-sharp], apparently in connection with op.131. Holz likely adds violin fingerings, and says he would read that as G-sharp; B; G-sharp. Beethoven writes a G-sharp and after some rests an A. Holz says that he read the note above as a B; apparently Beethoven omitted a third ledger line and meant to write an F-double sharp [equivalent to G-natural, the lowest note on a violin]. Holz says that violinists always take it as an open string, and writes what he believes Beethoven intended. [Page 7r and a detail of 7v with this music is reproduced here.] So long as the G string is not tuned below the standard, that works.

Louis Spohr also always sketched his fingering as Holz does. But he is a violinist. If it is the leading tone, it is almost necessary [to notate it as Beethoven has done.] Also, it makes a significant difference whether the string is stroked sharply or softly. If that is important to Beethoven, he should make the part accordingly.

Holz [who is a violinist] tells Beethoven he just learned a sonata which is very difficult in D major with the fugue. [Holz then quotes part of the 3rd movement of the cello sonata op.102/2 and the beginning of the first movement of that sonata.]

Beethoven mentions that he is starting work on yet another string quartet, this time in the key of F major. [That will eventually become op.135.] Holz comments that this will be Beethoven’s third sonata in that key. [op.18/1 and op.59/1 are the other string quartets in F.] But none yet in the relative minor of D minor. Speaking of keys missing from the oeuvre of famous composers, Holz finds it strange that of the very many quartets by Haydn, he did not compose a single one in A minor.

Holz tells Beethoven that he spoke to poet Franz Grillparzer about Kuffner’s proposed oratorio on Saul and David. Grillparzer says he wouldn’t look for much glory in it, but he did not know any text that would be so appropriate for an opera, both musically and scenically. Beethoven and Holz discuss that Kuffner intends to open the oratorio with a hunters’ chorus. Holz jokes that Weber has already hunted twice. [A reference to hunter’s choruses in both Der Freischütz and Euryanthe.] But Holz thinks it is a pity about such beautiful verses being wasted; those in the hunters’ chorus are very good.

Holz asks Beethoven his opinion of French composer André Grétry. Beethoven knew his operas back when he lived in Bonn; he even wrote a set of variations, WoO 72, on a theme from Grétry’s Richard Löwenherz [Richard the Lion-Hearted].

Holz mentions that Wenzel Würfel, the professor of music from the University of Warsaw, is rehearsing Fidelio in his capacity of Kapellmeister at the Kärntnertor Theater. [No public performance of the opera occurs at this time, however.] Referencing Ludwig’s guardianship of Nephew Karl, Würfel always asks “what is the father doing?”

Beethoven inquires what Karl says he is doing with his time. Holz responds, “I almost know my answer in my sleep now: He is very diligent and studies from early morning till dinner at 3 o’clock.” Beethoven complains that the troubles with Karl weigh on his mind and interfere with his composing. Holz agrees, “It imposes itself on you, especially when one is working with such things.”

Conversation Book 114, 4r-9v.