BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, March 22, 1824
After the frenzied activity of the last two days, things are fairly quiet in the Beethoven household today. A washerwoman comes and takes care of the laundry. Left alone, Beethoven is able to concentrate on the mountain of proofreading that has backed up and prevented further work on copying the Missa Solemnis parts.
Also, today Countess Stockhammer’s cook presumably comes to interview for a position, as Karl had said was the plan on last Saturday. While she does not write in the conversation books, she is hired and begins working for the Beethovens sometime within the next ten days, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
About today, a furious Beethoven, who has started proofreading the fair copy of the first movement of the Ninth Symphony, writes an undated note to copyist Paul Maschek. That copyist and an assistant are working on the copies for the Akademie concert, both the fair copy of the Ninth Symphony and the parts for that work and the Missa Solemnis. Though undated, this letter clearly comes after Maschek has delivered the first movement of the fair copy, but before he has delivered the later ones. That means according to our chronology it must come between March 21, when the first movement is delivered, and March 30 when the Finale is turned over by Maschek or his assistant. March 22 or 23 seems the most probable date of the letter.
In the letter, Beethoven complains bitterly about the quality of the copying. “Copy everything as I have indicated, and use some intelligence. If bars are copied onto extra pages [such as the revised ending of the Scherzo], the necessary connections must be maintained. And you must also observe the smaller notes; half of your notes are never exactly on the line or between the lines. If every movement of the Symphony is going to be copied as you did the first Allegro, the entire score will be useless.”
Beethoven continues, “I need the solo vocal parts which have already been copied, and I also need the violin parts and so forth that were not yet proofread, so that instead of one mistake there may not be 24. As for the title pages and end pages, I will need these more urgently, either today or tomorrow.” He also disputes the claim that his apartment is more remote than Maschek’s and it makes it harder to supervise the work.
From this letter, it appears that Maschek, eager to keep the project on schedule and to keep his assistants working, disregarded Beethoven’s instructions not to duplicate all of the parts before the first exemplars have been proofread. That surely entered into Beethoven’s thinking in agreeing to have Peter Gläser (son of conductor Franz Gläser) take on much of the copying work tomorrow. He does, however, allow Maschek to finish the fair copy of the Symphony.
Brandenburg Letter 1793; Anderson Letter 1285. The letter is held in the Bonn Beethovenhaus (H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 274), and can be seen here:
https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5813132899385344/scan/0
In Leipzig, Heinrich Albert Probst writes to Beethoven, saying that he will place on deposit 100 full-weight Imperial ducats with Joseph Loydl & Co. in Vienna. Beethoven may draw upon them once he has delivered the Opferlied op.121b, in both piano [catalogued as Hess 91] and orchestral versions, Bundeslied op.122, again in both piano [Hess 92] and orchestral versions, the Arietta Der Kuss op.128, the Six Bagatelles for piano op.126, and the Consecration of the House Overture, op.124, along with 2- and 4-hand piano arrangements. Per Beethoven’s instructions, he will postpone publication of the Overture until next July [Beethoven having granted the rights to use the Overture for the opening of the new theater in Berlin later this year.] The piano arrangements are quite important to Probst, since the sale of a work exclusively for orchestra is so limited as to barely cover the costs of printing; all of the profit is in the piano versions. He looks forward to continuing this business relationship with Beethoven. He thanks Beethoven for his offer of the Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony, and if this first business deal works satisfactorily, he will let Beethoven know about his decision. [This reference to their “mutual satisfaction” suggests that Probst may have heard the complaints from publisher C.F. Peters as to the works he had received from Beethoven and refused to print them as unworthy.]
Brandenburg Letter 1796; Albrecht Letter 349. The original is held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, aut.36,71a. The address page is postmarked LEIPZIG 22 March 24. Nephew Karl has written on the letter the address of Loydl & Co. upon receipt.
Artaria & Co. today advertises in the Wiener Zeitung at 296 the availability of a portrait of pianist Ignaz Moscheles, who on December 15, 1823 borrowed Beethoven’s Broadwood piano for a concert. Moscheles obviously made quite an impression on the Viennese music loving public. The price is 3 florins W.W.