BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, June 27, 1825 (approximately)

Roughly about now, Hans Georg Nägeli writes to Beethoven from Zurich. [The dating is based upon the fact Beethoven makes a note to write to Archduke Rudolph on behalf of Nägeli on about July 3, and mail from Zurich would take roughly a week to get to Beethoven in Baden.] Nägeli has long wanted to start new publishing ventures, and has found a financial backer to establish himself in Frankfurt. But as part of that, he needs to move his store to Frankfurt, while keeping the business in Switzerland. For that additional expense, he is looking for a loan of 6,000 francs. His store and inventory would be security for the debt.

Nägeli would like to borrow that sum from Baron von Rothschild in Frankfurt, but he will need a letter of recommendation, and Rothschild is very particular about such things. Nägeli therefore asks whether Beethoven would prevail upon His Royal Highness and Eminence Archduke Rudolph to give such a recommendation. “This recommendation would indirectly also be useful to you, because I would thereby publish new works by you for a reasonable fee, and would continually spread your fame.” If the Archduke would provide such a recommendation of Nägeli stating he is a worthy promoter of culture, and that this would also favor “the first composer of the new century, Beethoven, who is in high favor with HRH & E.” Indeed, Nägeli is also thinking of the Archduke as a composer who could be included, but he doesn’t want to suggest that he is just trying to win the Archduke’s approval by making such a representation.

“I ask that the contents of this letter be kept secret. Least of all should any music dealer become aware of it. Please be so kind as to give me a prompt reply in any case, and to provide reports on how the first well-calculated steps gradually will lead to a great goal.”

Brandenburg Letter 2001, Albrecht Letter 412. The original is not known to exist; a draft survives in the Zurich Central Library (Ms. Car XV 196.5). Nägeli had gained some renown through his series of lectures on music, and his publications of musical works and his series of Répertoire des Clavicinistes beginning in 1803. However, his projected plan came to naught because his application to become a citizen of Frankfurt was rejected. He continued trying until 1828, when he finally gave up on the plan.

Today’s Wiener Zeitung contains a curious advertisement from Sauer & Leidesdorf for “Variations favorites pour le Pianoforte à 4 mains” by L. v. Beethoven. This is not, however, one of Beethoven’s sets of variations for piano four hands, WoO 67 or 74. Rather, it is an unauthorized arrangement (probably by Maximilian von Leidesdorf himself) of the third movement Allegretto con Variazioni from Beethoven’s Violin Sonata op.30/1.