BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, May 3, 1822

Artaria & Co. advertises for the first time the availability of “most of the vocal pieces” from Rossini’s opera Zelmira, with piano accompaniment, In the music advertisements section of today’s Wiener Zeitung. As you may recall, Rossini had publicly announced last month that Artaria will be the exclusive outlet for publication of arrangements of this new opera in Vienna.

Whether the fact Domenico Artaria tried at least once to get Rossini an audience with Beethoven entered into Rossini’s willingness to make this agreement is unknown, but it certainly didn’t hurt.