BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, June 24, 1825
Today is a holiday, St. John the Baptist’s Day, so Karl is able to come out to Baden to visit Uncle Ludwig. As he waits for Karl, Ludwig reads yesterday’s Vienna newspapers in a coffee house. He makes note of a 30-year-old woman seeking a housekeeper position, and that at the Sign of the Hunter, there is fresh venison and wild game red meat.
At Anton Strauss’s bookshop in the Dorotheergasse, there is an advertisement for Garnett’s Reise durch die Schottischen Hochlande [Journey through the Scottish Highlands], translated from the English, in three sewn volumes.
Beethoven also makes note of the steam coffee machine from Carl Delavilla, master tinsmith in Baden, as well as machines for roasting coffee, topics dear to Beethoven’s heart. [Karl had previously mentioned this advertisement to his uncle.]
When Karl arrives, Uncle Ludwig has him check to see what the temperature is at various baths in Baden. He returns with the information about each, ranging from 27 Reaumer to 28.5 Reaumer at the Frauenbad. [That is, between 92.5 and 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Ludwig notes them down.] Ludwig asks Karl where the Carolinen Bad is located, and Karl tells him next to the Frauenbad. Beethoven makes a note that if one buys a package of 30 baths, one could get 50 florins worth of baths for only 20 florins.
Karl mentions that his uncle will be visited later today by his former pupil Carl Czerny [whom Karl refers to as “the other Czerny,” to distinguish him from Joseph Czerny, who had given Karl piano lessons.] Frau Cibbini also intends to visit. [Catharina Cibbini (1785-1858), a pianist and daughter of composer Leopold Kozeluch. In September of 1825, publisher Maurice Schlesinger will ask Beethoven whether he wanted to marry her.]
Beethoven makes a note that they need mousetraps and 12-line music paper, and that a tip should be paid to the housekeeper for her earlier services.
He also makes a note to ask Fuchs [local operator of a wine shop] whether a person can get something to eat on a holiday.
Carl Czerny arrives for his visit. Frau Cibbini appears to be with him, though she does not write in the conversation book. He has been unsuccessful in getting a position. “I wouldn’t know what kind of position would be appropriate for me.” Beethoven suggests that he could serve as a Kapellmeister. Czerny considers it, but it depends on what he would have to compose.
What about lessons for the nobility? Beethoven suggests. Czerny indicates most of those positions are already spoken for. Frau Cibbini will be instructing Archduchess Sophie (1805-1872) in piano. Gottlieb Sperber (1787-1830) will be instructing Archduchess Carl.
Beethoven asks how much Czerny is paid for his compositions by publishers. “I usually take printed music in exchange for my compositions again.” [He presumably sells these copies to his students.] “I don’t place any value on my short works because I compose them very quickly. I would now sincerely like to occupy myself with larger orchestral works.”
Conversation Book 90, 12v-17v.
Music publisher Adolph Schlesinger writes to Beethoven today from Berlin, forwarding to Beethoven a recent copy of the Berliner allgemeine musikalischer Zeitung, and asks Beethoven for new compositions. Brandenburg Letter 1999. This letter is not known to survive, but its contents and date are known from Beethoven’s response, made on July 19th, as well as two drafts of that responsive letter.