BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, May 30, 1825 (approximately)

Beethoven continues work on the op.132 quartet middle movements. He makes some notes in his conversation book of errands he needs to run, probably today or over the next couple days.

• Bach [his attorney, Johann Baptist Bach], concerning the Treasury bonds, to exchange at the Magistrate’s, in paper at Rothschild’s.
  10-line, 12-line paper. [That is, rastrated music paper.]
• To Reisser. [Beethoven apparently intends to write to Franz Michael Reisser of the Polytechnic Institute about Karl; notably, Beethoven writes his name correctly this time after having been scolded by Karl last week for continuously calling him Reissig.]
• [“On” is crossed out] every bar in this movement has only the downbeat. Every bar in this piece has only the downbeat.
• Concerning the Mass [Missa solemnis] 15 ducats.
• The piano has attained such a wide range that can probably also be used in [my] earlier works. [This probably relates to his planned complete edition of his works, which would have revisions and new pieces to make them more marketable. The piano had developed substantially in capabilities since his first published works in the 1780s and 1790s, so using the full range of the piano now was probably of great interest to Beethoven. Announcing this proposition is contained a little farther down this list.]
• Time in Vienna.
  How is she getting here? [“She” might be a prospective housekeeper candidate.]
• Trip to England. [Surprisingly, this trip is still a possibility in Beethoven’s mind.]
• [Write] to Mainz. Exactly the same concerning the Berliner [allgemeine musikalische] Zeitung. The present range of the piano will be used in earlier works, without freezing the top register into a flauto piccolo, which is the unfortunate taste here in Vienna at present.

Conversation Book 89, 28r-28v.

Carl Czerny just keeps churning out material for the Viennese pianists. Today’s offering is an arrangement published by Anton Diabelli & Co. of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Nr.9 op.47 “Kreutzer” for piano four hands. He also did more famous arrangements of this same sonata for piano solo and for cello with piano. The advertisement includes the following (probably written by Czerny): “One of Beethoven’s most excellent sonatas has been transformed with the greatest possible diligence into a brilliant four-hand duet, using all the effects that can be extracted from the fortepiano in this way. The numerous lovers of four-hand piano music will certainly be happy to place this great sonata among the best original compositions of its kind.” Wiener Zeitung Nr.121 at 528.