BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, September 13, 1824

Nephew Karl is still in Baden with Uncle Ludwig. He quite likes it. “The air is certainly superb here. It makes a powerful difference when a person goes from here to Vienna.” The weather today is cloudy but not unpleasant.

The maid is still in the hospital. Two women have applied to serve as maids, so they have their choice.

They need to buy a new bell to summon the servants. Uncle Ludwig (who apparently cannot hear the bell at all now) asks whether that is necessary. Karl tells him, yes, the old bell cannot be used any more.

Out at mid-day dinner in a restaurant, Karl complains that the food is tasteless. “When one considers what things cost, and then one cannot enjoy them, it is really irritating.” He is also annoyed that the proprietor here always gets the Vienna newspapers much later. He only got the ones from last Friday, September 10, today.

Uncle Ludwig sends Karl to see the Streichers, who are staying in Baden. Karl goes to visit them briefly. [Exactly what this errand entails is uncertain. The visit may relate to Andreas Streicher’s plan to offer the Missa Solemnis in vocal parts with piano or organ accompaniment to various choral societies, and asking whether Beethoven would be amenable to such an idea. Streicher might give Karl a letter for Ludwig outlining this plan, though no such letter is known to survive.]

Upon Karl’s return, they discuss the arrangements for the new maid. She will gladly come along with them to Vienna, and can begin working tomorrow.

Perhaps still at the restaurant, Karl makes a note of two apartment advertisements found in the Friday, September 10 Intelligenzblatt supplement to the Wiener Zeitung (Nr.208 at 276). The second one, across from the Tobacco Concession in the Reimerstrasse, interests Uncle Ludwig in particular, and he makes note that they have several apartments for rent at 90, 120 and 230 florins.

Ludwig and Karl plan to go to Vienna tomorrow to continue the search for an apartment for Uncle Ludwig for the fall. The next lease term, beginning Michaelmas (September 29) is fast approaching.

Conversation Book 75, 17r-19r