BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, May 9, 1823

Karl has another round of examinations today, but Uncle Ludwig does not appear to attend this time.

Schindler visits Beethoven at his apartment. He suggests hiring Wenzel Rampl to copy the Diabelli Variations to serve as a master copy. There wouldn’t need to be a passing of the manuscript back and forth. Rampl can start with the 13th variation, so Diabelli would not be delayed in doing his engraving.

Beethoven takes his walk into the city this afternoon and runs into an unidentified publisher. He asks whether he can engrave a particular work. Which work, and what Beethoven’s response was, are unclear, though editor Theodore Albrecht suggests that it may be one of the principals of Sauer & Leidesdorf, asking (after the fact) about permission to publish the four lieder that had originally appeared in the Wiener Zeitschrift.

Beethoven makes a shopping list for 16-lined music paper, probably for use in working on the Ninth Symphony. He also makes a note to get the scores for his works back from Johann. [Ludwig had given Johann several works as repayment for loans, including the Consecration of the House Overture, op.124.]

Conversation Book 32, 39r-40r.

Another new work for piano appears from the pen of Beethoven’s former student Carl Czerny today: Variations brillantes op.40 for piano four hands, on the popular March from the ballet La Danseuse d’Athénes by Beethoven’s close friend Joseph Weigl (1766-1846), who also is the publisher.

“Like all works by this valued composer, this one also bears the stamp of genius upon its forehead. Some variations are remarkable for their grandeur of style, others for their simplicity, reminiscent of the great epoch of music; but all do credit to their inventor, and rank as worthy as the many rich works that his fertile pen has already delivered to us.” Today’s Wiener Zeitung at 425.