BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, June 7, 1824 (approximately)

Since today is the holiday Pentecost Monday, Nephew Karl has no classes. Likely today he and Uncle Ludwig are at a coffee house. Ludwig observes someone gesticulating, and expresses his contempt. He writes in French, so as not to be understood, “What incomprehensible talk.” Karl mentions that one of the two men in that conversation got two large rooms and a kitchen on the first floor [second floor American] in Heiligenstadt for 70 florins W.W. for the entire summer. Ludwig says, “The language of silent gestures, as if turning the handle of a music box, etc.– it all shows a person who wants to say much by means of nothing.”

Karl mentions that he bought six books for 3 florins, but he needs paper.

Uncle Ludwig makes a note for a washing basin [from context in tomorrow’s entry, probably to be left at the apartment for Karl.]

Conversation Book 71, 25r-26r.

Cologne hosts the Lower Rhine Music Festival on June 6 and 7, 1824. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.35 (August 26, 1824) at 561-567. Yesterday, the first day of the festival featured a new oratorio composed for the occasion by Kapellmeister Friedrich Schneider of Dessau. Today, the second day of the Festival, the works performed included the Symphony Nr. 4 by Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries, and the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo from Beethoven’s Mass in C, op.86 (though denominated as hymns to avoid problems with the church and the censors), as well as the Coriolan Overture, op.62. The parts for all participants were engraved by Nikolaus Simrock’s publishing firm in Bonn.

The AMZ reported, “The second day was again one of high enjoyment. The Ries Symphony, both original and beautifully orchestrated, made a huge impression and gave the instrumentalists the opportunity to develop their art. The excellence of their execution aroused general admiration. Kapellmeister Schneider stepped down from the podium after the first Allegro, and embraced, with tears in his eyes, the composer’s old father [Franz Anton Ries (1755-1846)], who played the first violin.”

“The sentiments of the listeners spoke in full measure to the hymns of Beethoven, written with ascetic enthusiasm. They certified the greatness of the brilliant composer. The Overture to Coriolan by Beethoven, that most ingenious and difficult to execute tone poem, was performed masterfully. However, it did not have the same impact on most listeners as the other works, because it’s a bit short and the tragedy by Collin that is to follow it was unknown to many, leaving it incomprehensible to some.”

All told, the music festival was a great success and involved 474 participants, providing evidence of the expansion and perfection of “the exercise of one of the noblest arts here.” In addition to the new masterpiece by Schneider, Cologne honored the excellent sons of the Rhineland, Beethoven and Ries, and in this way demonstrated a real patriotic spirit, avoiding one-sided art and thus decorating the local wreath with a foreign pearl. The Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung for June 16, 1824 (Nr.44) at 176 agreed that “Everything united to celebrate a truly great festival for the art of music.”

The London Morning Post has a brief mention of 12-year-old Franz Liszt’s British debut at the Argyll Room, sponsored by the Royal Society of Musicians. Amongst the “eminent professors, amateurs and admirers of the fascinating science of music,” Liszt impressed the crowd. “To do justice to the performance of Master Liszt…is totally out of our power.” Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years at 103.