BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, March 3, 1823

There are no surviving conversation book entries for today; the next entries are for March 4. Since there are no more references to having dinner with clarinetist Joseph Friedlowsky after yesterday, when Beethoven intended to invite him, historian Ted Albrecht suggests that a separate book, now lost, was used for that dinner on this day. Beethoven also gives Archduke Rudolph his three-hour composition lesson at the palace, then makes his way back home before 2:30.

A performance of Fidelio occurs this evening in Vienna at the Kärntnertor Theater. The performance is a triumph: the Overture, the Duet and the Quartet, all have to be repeated by popular demand.

Karl, whose foot is now healed well enough to walk, goes with Frau Blöchlinger to attend the performance of the topical comedy “1722, 1822, 1922” at the Josephstadt. Schindler is in the orchestra as concertmaster, and afterwards he pays Frau Blöchlinger the money to cover Karl’s rent through early next year.

In Leipzig today at the Gewandhaus, Beethoven is prominently featured in a concert. Opening the program is Symphony Nr. 4 by Ferdinand Ries, one of Beethoven’s composition students. This was followed by Beethoven’s Ah, perfido, op.65, sung by Mlle. Siebert. The second half of the concert included the complete incidental music to Goethe’s Egmont, op.84, with poetic declamation performed by Herr Stein. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of June 18, 1823, Nr.25, at col.404-405.

The Egmont Overture, op.84, is here performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly:

Today, the second of the London Philharmonic Society’s concerts is given under the baton of Mr. Henry Bishop (1787-1856), The concert includes two works by Beethoven. Both of these are in the second of two acts, which opens with the Fifth Symphony, and closes (after three smaller pieces) with the Overture to Fidelio. “The symphony in C minor is generally considered as Beethoven’s chef d’oeuvre, and by ourselves amongst others. It is certainly the most elaborate and scientific of his works, and, if sublimity were his object in writing it, he attained it, all must allow.”

“The overture to his opera of Fidelio, is a very eccentric composition, full of genius, and never fails to please the cognoscenti.” The Harmonicon, Nr.IV, April, 1823 At 58.