BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, March 20, 1826 (very approximately)

Beethoven writes a short undated note in pencil to unpaid assistant Karl Holz cancelling their mid-day dinner plans, sometime after Beethoven’s return to Vienna from Baden and his first letter to Holz after his return on October 17 1825, and before Beethoven’s departure to Gneixendorf on September 28, 1826. “It is impossible to allow you to come to dinner. Just tell the housekeeper when you are coming this evening. I will then have something cold prepared for supper. Cleaning will take up the whole day, and it is high time. Beethoven.”

Etching of a violinist with a high starched collar, long sideburns and large lapels and collar, in the style of the 1840s. — 1842 Portrait of Jacques Féréol Mazas, courtesy Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

Brandenburg Letter 2084. This letter was held in a private collection in Brussels at the time Sieghard Brandenburg did his edition of Beethoven’s letters. The reference to the housekeeper suggests that this note was hand delivered by the housekeeper to Holz, and returned to let Beethoven know when he would be coming in the evening. The reference to cleaning up the whole day could be in preparation for hosting the Schuppanzigh Quartet after the premiere of the Quartet op.130 tomorrow evening.

If plans work out as were discussed earlier this week, Ignaz Schuppanzigh visits Beethoven today with violinist Jacques Féréol Mazas, who is visiting Vienna. However, without the Conversation Books for this time period we have no secure information about that visit.