BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, April 24, 1826
Composer and pianist Anton Halm, who had been commissioned by Mathias Artaria to arrange the Grosse Fuge Finale from the String Quartet op.130 for piano four hands, writes a letter dated today to Beethoven. “Most esteemed Herr v. Beethoven,”
“I have finished your Fugue, which I have the honor to present to you, with the utmost diligence and care. I marveled in every bar, at your power with harmony and the flow, as well as the musical motifs you applied and developed to the point of exhaustion. As for my arrangement, it was unfortunately not possible for the Suges [musical subjects in contrapuntal writing] to always remain in their original form, but they had to be broken up more often.”
“Incidentally, it is so brilliant, so playable, and I hope, still comprehensible enough that your highest masterpiece will be recognized for what it is. I request your kind opinion on my arrangement. I will be there at the latest at 1/4 to 4 tomorrow afternoon, with delivery of your manuscript. Meanwhile, I remain with the highest respect,
“Yours truly, Anton Halm mp [by his own hand.]”
Brandenburg Letter 2149; Albrecht Letter 431. Beethoven does not, in fact, approve of Halm’s arrangement and will decide to write his own, which will be published as op.134.
Apparently an incident happens between unpaid assistant Karl Holz sometime about today that causes a brief but serious rupture between them. It may be related to Halm’s arrangement of the Grosse Fuge, since it was Holz’s friend Mathias Artaria who commissioned this arrangement. There are some hints in the correspondence on Wednesday, April 26, about this dispute, but not enough to determine its source or what exactly happened.
There is an extant leaf torn from the now-lost conversation book that covered today, held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus (H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 288, SBH 513). At the top of this page, Nephew Karl writes, possibly referring to the incident with Holz, “said so it happened only because I did not speak.” Karl’s partial sentence is crossed out, and below it Beethoven has copied out a few items in today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.93), probably in a coffee house or restaurant, perhaps with Karl. The first item is in the Arrivals and Departures column of the newspaper on page 403, the announcement that on April 21, Prince von Galitzin, Imperial Russian Major General, with his wife, arrived from Paris and is living in the City at Nr.906. Beethoven may have wondered how this prince was related to his patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin, or possibly whether this might be the man himself.
Beethoven also copies out onto this page from page 602 of the Intelligenzblatt supplement of this same newspaper an advertisement for a middle-aged widow living on a small pension and originally from Germany, who wishes to find employment in a solid house in Vienna, in the provinces, or in the countryside, who values good treatment more than honorariums. While this woman seems to fit precisely the profile of housekeeper that Beethoven usually sought, we have insufficient information to determine whether she was ever interviewed or engaged as a servant by him.
On the back of this page, Beethoven seems to have begun a conciliatory draft letter to Holz: “Demoisell Hähnel, good singer [illegible] I don’t even think about anything like what you seem to believe. We certainly expect you on Sundays.” Some of this is similar to the text of the letter to Holz Beethoven will dictate to Karl on Wednesday, April 26, though without the reference to Demoiselle Hähnel.
The third of the Royal Academic Concerts is given in London today, and opens with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor. The Harmonicon for May, 1826 (Nr.XLI) at 107 said, “In this concert the instrumental pieces were well chosen and well executed; the splendid symphony of Beethoven, and the equally fine overture of Weber [Der Freischütz], require no encomiums now.”
The Fifth Symphony is here performed by Christian Thielemann conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.