BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, November 6, 1826 (approximately)

There is discussion about Ludwig’s monetary contributions to the food. Nephew Karl tells Uncle Ludwig that Brother Johann’s housekeeper has to account for the kitchen expenses. Later Karl will present them to Ludwig for approval. Karl notes that beef is much cheaper here; in Vienna the price is still 17 kreutzers, while in Gneixendorf it is only 12 1/2 kreutzers. But that can be sorted out later. As soon as Ludwig has had his dinner, he can go out for a drive because the weather is so beautiful.

Uncle Ludwig is thinking about how to send the new Finale for the op.130 quartet to Vienna, rather than making Johann take a special trip again as he did for the op.135 quartet. He could mail it from Krems, he suggests. But Karl points out that there is no direct mail of parcels going from Krems to Vienna. Rather, packages go from Krems to St. Pölten, from where they are forwarded to Vienna. Would the stage coach be an option, then? No, Karl tells him. The stage coach to Vienna only comes on Sundays.

Ludwig would like to go out later. Karl tells him that they will go out today, but it has to be soon, since otherwise it will be dark.

Then there is the matter of collecting the 80 ducats from Tendler & Manstein for the op.135 quartet. They toss around the idea of writing to Johann’s brother-in-law Leopold Obermeyer [wife Therese’s brother] and having him collect the funds and forward them. Karl points out that if they write to Obermeyer tomorrow, then it will take until next week to get the funds, because the money cannot be sent securely by carriage until then. Therese offers to go to Vienna tomorrow so that there is no risk to the money. She or her brother can collect the funds, and then she will be back home on Wednesday, November 8. She will take the Stellwagen. Ludwig will need to pay the travel expense, but that won’t amount to much. “In any case, she will bring the receipt, so that she can make arrangements at the post office at once.”

What about the receipt? asks Ludwig. It is made out as if Brother Johann were collecting the funds. Karl tells him that it can be changed, only instead of his brother, it can be written out as received by the female bearer of the receipt.

Conversation Book 123, 10r-12r.

According to the Wiener Zeitung of November 7 (Nr.255) at 1095, Beethoven’s patron Archduke Rudolph leaves Vienna today for his archbishopric of Ölmutz in Moravia.