BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, September 9, 1825

The Schuppanzigh Quartet gives a first semi-private performance of the Quartet in A minor, op.132, as an audition for publisher Maurice Schlesinger. After the humiliating debacle with the premiere of op.127, violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh was clearly taking no chances with this quartet. It would not be performed publicly for another two months, allowing for plenty of rehearsals. A second semi-private performance of the quartet will be held on Sunday, September 11.

Unpaid assistant Karl Holz accompanies Beethoven in a carriage to Vienna for the private performance of the quartet op.132. They appear to stop for breakfast at the customs and way station in Wiener Neudorf, where Karl customarily stops. Holz, who had a bad experience recently with the sausage here, says he cannot eat anything more, giving the excuse that he ate last night. Beethoven asks him what time the performance is to be held and Holz answers, at noon.

Beethoven complains about the expense of the carriage, which suggests they are not taking the scheduled coach, which is rather cheap, but a private conveyance. Holz agrees it costs an enormous amount of money, like throwing it out the window.

They arrive at Nephew Karl’s rented rooms at about 10 a.m. Holz lets Beethoven know that Schuppanzigh will want to include the third quartet [op.130] when he starts up his subscription concerts again. Holz asks whether it is more difficult than the second [op.132]. He would like to know whether it also has the Allemande. [It does, the fourth movement Alla danza tedesca, which was originally considered for op.132.]

Holz quotes Schiller, from Der Kampf mit dem Drachen:

“Even the Mameluke shows courage;
Obedience is the jewel of the Christian.”

Holz then waxes philosophical: “Either what is right, or nothing at all—that is my motto. What is mediocrity good for? In every person there sleeps a talent that would allow him to achieve more than the ordinary, but its presence seldom manifests itself. A person will often be a so-so-poet, and yet might become an eminent painter.”

Holz takes the carriage home to retrieve the quartet parts. On the way, he stops at Pablo Mecchetti’s music shop, where he meets George Smart, and offers to take him to meet Beethoven at Karl’s rooms right now. Smart declines, so Holz invites him instead to attend the performance of the quartet at Zum wilden Mann in Maurice Schlesinger’s rooms. He then returns to meet Ludwig and Karl.

While Holz is gone, Beethoven does some financial calculations about what he is due from Lobkowitz, Archduke Rudolph and Prince Kinsky’s estate. He also makes a note to get a stamped sheet to apply for his stipends, and also to visit piano maker Matthäus Andreas Stein.

Holz returns. Beethoven asks him whether the Archduke is in Vienna today. Holz tells him no, he’s at the spa at Ischl, for his poor hearing. [He is in fact there for treatment of his epilepsy.]

This concludes Conversation Book 94. Beethoven has with him a fresh conversation book, but it is not used until after the performance (and those discussions entirely fill the book).

The three of them go to the hotel Zum wilden Mann, where they meet with Maurice Schlesinger and the rest of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, as well as the small select group of just over a dozen that has been invited to attend. The performance proceeds, conducted by Beethoven personally.

Sir George Smart left a brief account of this day in his diaries: “Mr. Mittag called and took me to Artaria’s music shop. Artaria was away in Italy on a tour. A pleasant man, who spoke French…told me that Artaria’s was the first music shop established in Wein [sic], but he also sells maps, etc. We then went to [Pablo] Mecchetti’s music shop, they too are publishers…Mr. Holz, an amateur in some public office and a good violin player, came in and said Beethoven had come from Baden this morning and would be at his nephew’s—Carl Beethoven, a young man aged twenty—No. 72 Alleegasse….”

“At twelve I took [Joseph] Ries to the Hotel Wildemann, the lodgings of Mr. Schlesinger, the music-seller of Paris, as I understood from Mr. Holz that Beethoven would be there, and there I found him. He received me in the most flattering manner. There was a numerous assembly of professors to hear Beethoven’s second new manuscript quartette, bought by Mr. Schlesinger. This quartette is three-quarters of an hour long. They played it twice. The four performers were Schuppanzigh, Holz, Weiss and Lincke. It is most chromatic and there is a slow movement entitled ‘Praise for the recovery of an invalid.’ Beethoven intended to allude to himself I suppose for he was very ill during the early part of this year. He directed the performers, and took off his coat the room being warm and crowded. A staccato passage not being expressed to the satisfaction of his eye, for alas, he could not hear, he seized Holz’s violin and played the passage a quarter of a tone too flat. I looked over the score during the performance. All paid him the greatest attention. About fourteen were present, those I knew were Boehm (violin), [Joseph Mattern?] Marx (‘cello), Carl Czerny, also Beethoven’s nephew, who is like Count St. Antonio [one of the members of the committee that founded the Royal Academy of Music in 1822], so is Boehm, the violin player. The partner of Steiner, the music-seller [Tobias Haslinger], was also there. I fixed to go to Beethoven at Baden on Sunday [September 11] and left at twenty-five minutes past two.” Smart was not aware that Friedrich Kuhlau was also present. In the evening Smart attends the Palace Theater. “There was no director of the orchestra and the pitch was above my fork, as it was at Schlesinger’s this morning.”

Cox and Cox, Leaves from the Journal of Sir George Smart (London, 1907), pp.107-110

The quartet is here played by the Alban Berg Quartet:

After the performance, Beethoven has dinner at the inn with Nephew Karl, Holz, Maurice Schlesinger, violist Franz Weiss and Schuppanzigh. Cellist Joseph Linke appears not to have attended. The conversation fills an entire (slim) conversation book of 16 leaves, Book 95, which is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 287, unlike nearly all of the other conversation books, which were sold to the Berlin Staatsbibliothek by Anton Schindler. The book was almost certainly given to Schlesinger by Beethoven as a souvenir of the occasion, since it has an ink notation by Adolph Schlesinger “Conversation answers with my son Maurice Schlesinger with Beethoven, Vienna 1825.” The leaves are bound with a pale lilac silk thread, while the first and last leaves are connected by two green ribbons. Prof. Albrecht suggests that from the frequency and content of the entries, Beethoven probably sat at the head of the table, with Schlesinger and Holz on either side of him. Schlesinger may have been on Beethoven’s left, enabling him to speak into the composer’s good ear. Nephew Karl and Weiss probably sat the farthest away since Karl only writes three entries and Weiss none.

As the concert is breaking up, but before dinner, Schuppanzigh jokingly says that Beethoven should not trust his wooden friend [Holz, meaning “wood” in German], who is often a leathery fellow. Holz says that Friedrich August Kanne, formerly the editor of the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, had said that same thing and Schuppanzigh (whom he calls Falstaff) is the imitator.

Holz writes on behalf of Sir George Smart before he leaves, asking whether Beethoven wrote the recitatives of the Ninth Symphony with famous bassist Domenico Dragonetti in mind. Beethoven likely tells him that he actually had Anton Grams (1752-1823) in mind instead. Smart tells Beethoven that Dragonetti did not take part in the London performance of the symphony in March, since he demanded too much money for his participation. Dragonetti insisted that Beethoven had written the entire symphony for him. Beethoven invites Smart to meet him in Baden on Sunday, and then Smart departs at 2:25 p.m., as he noted in his journal.

At about 2:30, the remaining group has dinner, likely in the restaurant at Zum wilden Mann. Holz proposes a toast, “To your health and eternal productivity.” Especially more quartets like the one today “even without sharps or flats. [The key signature of the op.132 quartet is A minor, which has no sharps or flats.] Mylord [Schuppanzigh] will play these as well as he plays whist.”

Schlesinger points out that Luigi Cherubini “has such great admiration for a certain Beethoven, that if one speaks of him, his figure becomes this tall again out of attention.” Cherubini is a tall man already.

Tobias Haslinger, who for some reason appears not to have joined the group for dinner, comes up as a topic. Schlesinger mentions that Haydn wrote an opera called “Der kleine Tobias.” “I told Tobias today: Beethoven will immortalize you and the Paternostergassel.” Beethoven writes, so as not to be heard, “Tobias confided to me today that you are also giving the Quartet to Steiner.” [Beethoven is likely concerned about this resale of the quartet, since he would receive nothing from it.]

Schlesinger suggests that he can come to Baden on Saturday evening and then on Sunday morning Beethoven can come with him into the City and the carriage will take him back in the evening. [Beethoven probably mentions that he just invited Sir George Smart to come out to Baden to visit him on Sunday.] The group discusses Beethoven’s quintets and so far as they know there are only two of them [op.4 and op.29.]

Holz improvises a little poem about Schuppanzigh, probably in response to his pouring himself more wine:
Mylord believes that he can tolerate more wine;
Falstaff says that, too!
That his body, however, can still stand on his feet!
Falstaff says that, too!

Holz then quotes the canon that Beethoven wrote for Kuhlau, WoO 191: “Kühl, nicht lau,” and that it was written on the notes b a c h. [B natural being written in German notation as h.]

Schuppanzigh retorts that “Violino secondo [i.e., Holz] is even more fiery now than in the quartet.”

Nephew Karl mentions that two of Uncle Ludwig’s piano trios are to be performed here at Zum wilden Mann on Sunday, September 11. [These will be op.70/1, the “Ghost” trio, and op.97, the “Archduke.” Carl Czerny will be on the piano, along with Schuppanzigh and Linke.] Schuppanzigh thought that Beethoven would like to be present. Schlesinger suggests that they drive back to Baden together on Sunday evening, and Beethoven agrees. He tells Beethoven that he will see Smart between now and then, and will let him know about the change of plans. Schuppanzigh wants a rehearsal tomorrow, Saturday, September 10, of the trios and also the quartet op.127. [In fact, op.132 will be played instead, rather than op.127.] The proprietor of Zum wilden Mann, Sebastian Schmidt, lets Beethoven know that on Sunday at 11 o’clock, “I shall enjoy the good fortune of finding you here again.”

When Schlesinger leaves for Paris, he will visit his father in Berlin on the way, and he will arrange a rehearsal of the quartet op.132 so that Adolph Bernhard Marx, editor of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung can hear it.

Beethoven asks why Friedrich Kuhlau did not join them for dinner. Schlesinger says that he went to take a two-hour walk in the Prater, in order to recover from the pleasure of hearing the new quartet.

Holz references the incident Smart recorded in his diary about being shown how to properly play a staccato passage: “I am pleased to be able to say now that I have received a violin lesson from Beethoven.”

Schlesinger says that proprietor Schmidt would like to give a Beethoven dinner. “May Bacchus will that it be true!!!” Beethoven proposes a toast to Schmidt and the superb meal they are having. Schlesinger responds, referencing the quartet, “To the superb meal that you offered to us!”

Holz mentions in an aside to Beethoven that violist Franz Weiss is drinking heavily and is saying “As God wills, Maria Weber.” [A reference to a portrait of Weber with his facsimile signature and the words, “As God wills.” Beethoven’s circle sometimes joked about this egotistical inscription.]

Like Weiss, Schuppanzigh is getting increasingly drunk and starts being obnoxious, calling Carl Czerny a “slovenly fellow” and a “whoremonger.” He also tells a story about Mozart spitting into the bosom of his piano student Josepha Auernhammer (1758-1820). Beethoven probably calls an end to the dinner in response. As he pays the bill, Schmidt tells him, “My greatest wish in this world still is to hear you, my earthly idol, improvise soon.” Schuppanzigh relates the story of Beethoven’s improvisational battle with Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823) back in 1800, when Beethoven improvised a theme off a cello part of a Steibelt quartet that was upside down, causing Steibelt to leave the room in a rage.

The hotel Zum wilden Mann is a departure point for carriages to Baden. Beethoven books a seat, along with three other passengers. They arrive back in Baden about 7 p.m.

Conversation Book 95, 1r-13r.