BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, June 23, 1826 (approximately)

Nephew Karl comes to see his uncle, who complains again about the new housekeeper, Elisabeth Passy, going home at night to take care of her crying children and her aged mother. Karl thinks it is good she is still not there on a permanent basis. Letting her sleep at home does not work. “In the beginning, she demanded that the maid sleep out here; when she [the maid, Marie Stiegel] heard that, she moved her bed out here, while the other one [Passy] was at the market. When she got back, she was very angry and asked why she did that, she was now under her command, and had to obey her. She [the maid] is afraid to sleep alone—now she will leave a night light on.” But she prefers to sleep out here [probably the anteroom to the apartment.]

Passy does not seem to know what she is doing in the kitchen, Karl thinks. “Today you ordered some leftovers, and she asked the maid [Marie Stiegel] what that was and how to make it?” She is not understanding Uncle Ludwig as well as she would like. She asked Karl how he comes to an understanding with Uncle Ludwig as quickly as he does.

Karl mentions that he stopped at the tailor’s on the way here. [He has said earlier this week he would make an appointment for today to get some overcoats lengthened.] It is more difficult for Karl to come on Fridays, because he has examinations. There are written exams every Friday and he cannot be late because they cannot be made up.

Dinner is served and Uncle Ludwig is unsure what it is. Karl says it is her leftovers. Karl says that “She told me as soon as I came that you were most satisfied with her.” Uncle Ludwig thinks it might be time to bring back Barbara Holzmann, the “old woman.” Karl agrees that the plan with the old woman would be the best.

Karl continues, “It is really very difficult, now that the exams are coming up, to eat here at mid-day, because I can spend the hour from 2-3 very well at home preparing, and much time will be wasted. However, I shall come—although not to eat. It will, however, always be possible on Saturdays, I suppose,” Karl grudgingly acknowledges.

Uncle Ludwig asks Karl what he thinks of Passy’s cooking. “To be honest, I do not find anything special about the cooking, which she announced in advance; and if the other one [the maid] only got a short instruction, she would cook differently. Uncle Ludwig complains again about Passy not spending the night there. Karl tells him that she wants to sleep there another couple of days because of her mother’s indisposition and her own, but that won’t be acceptable. Her mother, who lives with her, cannot be used to take care of the children at night, so she wants to be able to stay there herself.

Passy gives in and agrees to stop going home in the evenings. But she would like to air out her bed first before she lies down in it. If she knew whether the position was going to last, she would have brought her own bed. “She does not want to draw people’s attention to herself. If she had her own bed here, then perhaps she would have to go home again. She won’t sleep in it [the bed in Beethoven’s apartment] until it has been aired.” Beethoven mentions an incident yesterday, but Passy says she doesn’t know what he means by that. “She wants her own bed, because of her sore throat.”

Karl gives up and leaves, consulting with his landlady Frau Schlemmer about how Passy should be handled.

Conversation Book 113, 32r-35r.

Cappi & Czerny advertises in today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.142) at 601 the two songs Greisengesang and Dithyrambe, on words by Friedrich Schiller, for bass voice, op.60, by Franz Schubert. These songs are today catalogued as D.778 and D.801, respectively. Greisengesang is here performed by Matthias Goerne, accompanied by Alexander Schmalcz:

On page 602 of the same issue of the Wiener Zeitung, S.A. Steiner & Co. again advertises the arrangement of the Rondo from the Emperor Concerto op.73 [again described here as op.75] for piano four hands by Friedrich Mockwitz.