BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, February 17, 1823

After paying a call on Attorney Johann Baptist Bach, Schindler visits Beethoven, and they talk more about actor Philipp Klingmann. Despite his hearing problems, he is trying to maintain his career as an actor. He can usually hear the prompter, but when he can’t, he just says whatever comes into his mind. He dare not appear to be hard of hearing, and wants to make sure the administration thinks he can still perform his duties.

Bach is feeling better and back at work, and wants to assure Beethoven that he is working on his matters. [Now that the loan has been obtained on the bank share, this primarily entails working on Beethoven’s Will.] The debt owed to Steiner is substantial, but it would be best to pay that out of the proceeds of the planned Akademie benefit concert; there is not likely to be sufficient ready cash otherwise. An agreement needs to be reached with the Musik-Verein [the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde] to rent the hall for the Akademie, because time is passing quickly and it will soon be Easter. Beethoven suggests that the Ninth Symphony is not yet far enough along to be included in the Akademie, and Schindler asks whether that means the whole concert will need to be put off.

On Sunday, February 23, Beethoven’s oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, op.85, will be given at the Musik-Verein at 12:30 pm. Schindler suggests that Beethoven may want to make an appearance for the sake of goodwill. Beethoven does not like the idea and declines. At least the chorus will be well-rehearsed; they have been working on the piece for four weeks. The intended chorus is 30 members per part, and about two-thirds of them are skilled.

Schindler expresses some surprise that Beethoven does not intend to conduct the planned benefit concert. [This is an indication that his story in Beethoven’s biography about being present at the horrific rehearsal of Fidelio some months ago was a fabrication; had he actually been there, Beethoven’s desire to avoid such humiliation would certainly have been no shock.] Schindler suggests that perhaps Joseph Weigl (1766-1846), a composer and Court Theater Kapellmeister, could conduct. [Like Beethoven, Weigl had studied under Albrechtsberger and Salieri.] Schindler urges that arrangements be made for the hall next week. But he cautions that holding and promoting such a concert will cost “a frightening amount of money” if Beethoven tries to do it himself. The Musik-Verein would insist on a supervisor in the box office of such an event, so that there was no question as to their integrity. There would need to be at least four to five weeks of planning, especially for something as complex as the Mass. Since Easter falls on March 30, the concert could take place in April. [Schindler appears to be concerned about causing controversy if the Gloria from the Mass is performed during Lent; once Easter has come and gone, then the entire Mass or selected portions could be performed without a problem.]

Beethoven is anxious to hear back on his first round of subscription solicitations. Schindler urges him to be patient; it is quite impossible for any answer to be received yet, considering how poor the winter roads are. It will be difficult to get a response before mid-March, he expects.

The publishing firm of Sauer & Leidesdorf today in the Wiener Zeitung advertises the newly-published “Four German Poems, set to music for vocal solo with pianoforte accompaniment, by Ludwig van Beethoven, op.113.” This was not, as the phony opus number suggests, arrangements of pieces from The Ruins of Athens, but rather reprintings of four songs by Beethoven that had originally appeared in magazines in recent years. The four songs were: “Das Geheimnis,” WoO 145 (1816); “Resignation,” WoO 149 (1818); “Abendlied unterm gestirnten Himmel,” WoO 150 (1820); and “So oder so,” WoO 148 (1817). Beethoven of course received no compensation for this pirated set of songs. According to later comments by Beethoven, he appears to have been approached by Leidesdorf about publication, but he required payment, which never was made.

Constantin Graf von Waldersdorff and Kristin Okerlund here perform one of the four pirated songs, So oder so, WoO 148. This recording is the only one we are aware of that includes all six verses of the song; most recordings only include two or three at most. Just five verses were published during Beethoven’s lifetime; the sixth was suppressed by the publisher as politically dangerous.