BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, May 21, 1824

Likely this morning, a representative of the Lithographic Institute pays a call upon Beethoven. The Institute would like to have Beethoven’s portrait drawn from life by a skillful artist. He anticipates two sittings of about 3/4 of an hour each. It will be lithographed as a supplement in the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, as well as being available to the general public. He asks only that Beethoven say the day and the hour. Beethoven, annoyed by sitting for artists yet recognizing the publicity value, will only agree to a single sitting. He suggests he would have time on May 27th at his apartment. That would give him a couple days after the Akademie concert on Sunday to catch up on things he has been neglecting, but before he plans to move to the country for the summer. The light through the windows in this apartment is from the west, so the sitting would be best done between 4 and 6 o’clock in the afternoon. [The German editors note that this is the same representative who had asked to make a lithographic print of the gold medal given to Beethoven by the King of France.]

Conductor Michael Umlauf visits Beethoven, probably around 1 PM as he had indicated yesterday was his plan. He is busy today inventorying the music of the Tonkünstler Societät [Musician’s Society, a charitable group benefiting the widows and orphans of musicians. Umlauf served as the conductor and the cashier of the group.] That work has to be finished today, so he can do the rehearsal tomorrow.

He has heard that there is to be a new Trio of Beethoven’s performed. He would like to see the score. [Presumably Beethoven lets him look it over] He confirms that the performance is on Sunday, and that Beethoven has opted to take the certain payment of 500 florins, rather than risk taking a share of the profits, since the expenses are so high. There’s nothing more to do.

The discussion turns to Karl’s future. Umlauf asks whether Beethoven wants him to be a lawyer or a state official. Uncle Ludwig is not keen on the idea of Karl being a bureaucrat. Umlaut agrees, they are poorly paid and not always secure. But Archduke Rudolph could arrange something for him.

Shortly after Umlaut departs, unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes with news that theater manager Louis Antoine Duport has sent the contract for the Akademie concert Sunday to Beethoven. The Terzet is being rehearsed by three members of the Italian Opera: soprano Geronima Dardanelli; tenor Domenico Donzelli (1791-1873); and bass Pio Botticelli. They are very much taken with the work and have agreed to sing it.

Beethoven asks him what the ticket prices are. The Parterre is 1 florin, and up above is 2 florins, C.M. Duport also wants to come up with something else, so that famed Italian tenor Giovanni David (1790-1864), who had made a great success during Rossini’s stay in Vienna in 1822, will have something to sing. “A rather small Arietta,” he says. That will guarantee the hall will be jam-packed, so long as Beethoven agrees to it. “He wants to make it necessary for the nobility to come, whereby they must hear your works, in order, then, to be profitable for you. Thus you risk absolutely nothing, if you accept the second proposition.” Karl thinks his Uncle should. Ludwig, clearly feeling he has lost control of his own concert, reluctantly agrees to this interposition of someone else’s compositions.

Beethoven asks Nephew Karl to explain once more the two options presented by Duport. Beethoven can have a guaranteed 500 florins C.M., and Duport will bear all the risk of loss but also the reward of any profits. The alternative is that Duport takes one-third of the income, and Beethoven takes two thirds. Karl cautions that this division is of the net income, not the gross, after expenses are deducted. So Duport can set the expenses as higher than they actually are. [Karl has a good grasp of what in the modern world would be considered Hollywood accounting.] If the hall is indeed jam-packed, Uncle Ludwig might wish he had the 2/3 of the income rather than the 500 florins. But it depends on what his uncle prefers.

Schindler wishes that they had been able to get famed tenor Giovanni Rubini (1795-1854), a high tenor the like of which has never been heard in Vienna. The Terzet will be rehearsed tonight at Dardanelli’s apartment at 7; Schindler thinks he should also invite Umlauf to attend.

Karl, trying to steer the conversation back to the finances of the theater, warns that “One must deal cautiously with Duport, because he bristles up like an eel.” Is he untrustworthy? “Speculator in the highest degree.”

Schindler follows up on Karl’s warning, since as Umlauf says Duport has to pay both the chorus and the orchestra. They are not obligated to render services in the Redoutensaal. Everyone wants 8 florins for the rehearsal and the performance. That’s enough for Beethoven, who finally commits to accept the guaranteed 500 florins C.M., as he had already been inclined to do. It’s not what he was hoping for, but he can ill afford the risk of the concert running a loss thanks to Duport’s creative bookkeeping.

Count Palffy, owner of the Theater an der Wien, has proposed taking over both Court Theaters when the lease expires in December. He would take them on with an 80,000 florin subsidy. Schindler laughs that he is not in a position to administer his own theater; no one there has been paid their salary for two months. An annoyed Duport yesterday said it will be Palffy’s fault if there is no lease and people go hungry as a result. Beethoven should consider himself lucky that he is above all this intrigue. “If you knew what kind of people these are, you would often have more patience and compassion.”

Schindler says he ran into the gentleman from Mainz, with whom Beethoven seems to be acquainted. [The German editors suggest this may be Christian Rummel, who brought a letter of introduction from B. Schott’s Son’s in Mainz.] Unexpectedly, he has to leave tomorrow. So he would like to come visit Beethoven yet today, or certainly by tomorrow morning. Beethoven asks why he has to leave suddenly. It turns out his wife is very ill. She remains true to Beethoven and has a great devotion to him. She believes that her husband is at heart an Englishman, since she speaks of Boeufssteak, which she makes in the English way.

In any event, the present lease proposal for the Court Theaters is in Schindler’s estimation scandalous. The Theater is given to the lessee at no cost, but the Imperial convenience imposes so much that no profit is possible. What they give with one hand, they take away with the other. Count Dietrichstein and Mosel are the driving forces behind it. Schindler believes he sees through their plan: they want the theater for themselves, and they will dismiss the ballet and then the Opera personnel will be reduced and integrated with the dramatic speaking theater.

Before he leaves, Schindler reminds Beethoven to take care of the contract today, and be sure to read it.

After reading and signing the contract, at about 7 p.m. Beethoven goes to the small rehearsal with piano at Dardanelli’s apartment, where they are running through the Terzet, Tremate, empi, tremate op.116. Poet and journalist Ignaz Castelli, who was also close with Moritz Lichnowsky, is also there, as is Schindler. Castelli has heard that David is to sing “Di tanti palpiti” from Rossini’s opera Tancredi at the Akademie. He scoffs at the idea of this “street ballad.” If only David would sing something else. “The public laughs and treats you with scorn, because it says, See, he must get help from Rossini.” Beethoven cannot react well to this news. Castelli suggests that he should at least protest against “Di tanti palpiti.” Unable to bear any more, Beethoven abruptly leaves the rehearsal and returns home.

Nephew Karl is at Beethoven’s apartment, having gone to take the signed contract to Duport. He wasn’t able to talk to Duport personally, but he wanted to get the contract delivered before some new complication came up. Uncle Ludwig suggests that Karl should get a ticket to the Akademie for his professor of Greek, Professor Stein.

Conversation Book 68, 15v-22r. Tomorrow at noon will be the one and only rehearsal for this second Akademie, at the Redoutensaal. Nephew Karl will go with Ludwig and likely meet Schindler and Brother Johann there.

The first versions of the poster for Sunday’s Akademie concert, which lists “Di tanti palpiti,” probably go up today (which may be how Castelli knew about the Rossini aria’s inclusion in the concert). An example, courtesy of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v. 35,79), is attached. The poster is later revised to just describe this piece as, “Aria, sung by David,” deceptively implying that it is by Beethoven.