BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, December 13, 1824

Beethoven makes a note that they need to get butter.

He also writes a memorandum that Brother Johann should write to Loydl [Heinrich Albert Probst’s agents, though Beethoven mistakenly writes “Sodel”] saying that he is forwarding a letter for Probst to them. Ludwig then begins a draft letter to Loydl for Johann, relating to the Consecration of the House Overture and other works, which Ludwig had sold to Probst, and now is selling to Schott for a higher price instead. The letter, in Johann’s voice, is to the effect that the amount offered by Probst really displeases him. “My brother is too kind, and, because of his high standing, despises all the little chicaneries of life, but I do not think in that way. Immediately after Herr Probst’s letter, I inquired around and other publishers made offers. Since my brother had given me these works as payment of a debt, I therefore had the right to see where I could get more, because I am quite certain that I would not have received this much from Herr Probst, all the more so since he already was trying to pressure my brother terribly, for it was now obvious that my brother is not in a position to negotiate such business; so I therefore have dealt with these works myself. My own many business dealings were to blame for me not doing so earlier.” The proposed letter would be sealed shut with Johann’s seal, given to the baker, Johann’s brother-in-law Leopold Obermayer, and sent on from there.

Brandenburg Letter 1911; Albrecht Letter 387. It is unclear whether Johann followed through on sending such a letter to Loydl and Probst. Probst did not end up publishing the promised compositions in any event. Probst had offered to pay 100 ducats (Beethoven asked for 104), while Schott agreed to pay 130. The works in question were Consecration of the House, op.124; Opferlied, op.121b; Bundeslied, op.122; the Six Bagatelles, op.126; and Der Kuss, op.128.

Conversation Book 78, 33v-35v.

The December 29, 1824 issue (Nr.52) of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung includes at 443-444 a review of a concert presented in that city today by Chamber Musician Braun and his wife. Braun “distinguished himself as a virtuoso on the oboe with rare skill, beautiful and full tone and a fine, emotional performance.” His wife sang an aria from Mozart’s Figaro and also the first large duet from Cosi fan tutte. But the reviewer also has much to say about Beethoven.

“Following Herr [Karl] Möser’s honorable examples, Herr Braun also graced his concert with the performance of a complete and uninterrupted symphony, the second (in D major) by Beethoven, and thus joined the ranks of worthy concert organizers whose efforts are not aimed solely at making a good profit, but also to encourage the tastes of the public, and thereby indirectly promoting Art itself. The critic clearly recognizes how much things have changed in this respect to the benefit of the Berlin public, and to the honor of its artists, when he looks back at the recent years in which the performance of a symphony was something quite unheard of, and gave rise to many a comment in this newspaper. It will soon be an exception and generally criticized when more respectable artists undertake to do a concert without including a symphony.”

“And is it a mere love of symphonies that has prompted so many suggestions in this newspaper? Such a love would be more praiseworthy than blameworthy, but there is a more important intention at its root than the mere satisfaction of a personal inclination.”

“Since Haydn, the symphony has become one of the richest forms in which the best German composers have set down their ideas. In recent times, thanks to Beethoven, it is the triumph of instrumental composition. No one can boast of a perfect education, especially in German music; no one can claim to have a complete knowledge of instrumentation; unless they have learned to know and understand the German symphonies, and in particular Beethoven’s. Indeed, they contain ideas that are so new and important and inaccessible to all other forms of art that they cannot be left unused, if only for their own sake, for their precious intellectual content. The musical education of such a notable audience as that of Berlin therefore must be incomplete so long as it has not traveled in the understanding of the symphony.”