BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, August 25, 1823 (approximately)

Beethoven uses Conversation Book 39 as a reminder/shopping list over the next couple days. Baden was not nearly as close to Vienna as Hetzendorf had been, so his trips need to be more carefully planned. Among the things he notes:

• The finest apartment would be in the coffee house; consider it for next summer.
• Schlemmer. [This is probably a reminder to settle his remaining obligations with Wenzel Schlemmer’s widow, and to discuss the status of the various copies of the Missa Solemnis being made.]
• Salzmann. + Salzmann’s office hours. [Salzmann was an officer at the Austrian National Bank who often helped Beethoven with financial matters since the departure of Franz Oliva at the end of 1820.]
• Pension sheet to Karl [This probably related to the pension that Beethoven split with Johanna; he may have wanted Karl to obtain an affidavit from a priest that he was still alive so that the pension could be paid.]

Conversation Book 39, 21v-22r.

More shots are taken in the wars over Rossini’s operas between Artaria & Co and Sauer & Leidesdorf. The latter firm in today’s Wiener Zeitung at 792 repeats its advertisement for the third volume in its subscription series of Rossini’s Complete Operas in piano solo reductions.

Immediately below this, Artaria repeats its ad denouncing the Sauer & Leidesdorf edition, and points out that the operas Zelmira, Corradino, Maometto and Semiramide cannot be included in that set, as the only legal edition of those operas comes from Artaria. They once again point out that Leidesdorf himself did the piano reductions of Zelmira and Corradino for Artaria. Most of the other operas of Rossini for piano, with or without voice, “fully translated by the most skilled composers” and without the need of entering into a subscription, are also available from Artaria at the lowest prices.

To underline that point, in tomorrow’s Wiener Zeitung at 796 Artaria & Co. will advertise their new publication of Rossini’s Semiramide, arranged for piano without voice.