BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, September 26, 1825

Beethoven and Nephew Karl take a carriage in to Vienna this morning, since they are invited to Parisian publisher Maurice Schlesinger’s farewell dinner. Poet Ignaz Castelli is part of the group. Before the dinner, Beethoven’s quartet op.127 is played, with Karl Holz, usually second violin taking the first violin part because Ignaz Schuppanzigh is still in Pressburg (Bratislava) for the coronation of the Empress as Queen of Hungary. Prominent young violinist Léon de Saint-Lubin (1805-1850) takes the second seat, while Franz Weiss and Joseph Linke of the Schuppanzigh Quartet round out the group.

Afterwards, Schlesinger says that he had already heard the other evening from Ignaz Schuppanzigh that the second was not good. [It is unclear whether Schuppanzigh means Holz, who is his second violinist, or Saint-Lubin, who is filling in for Holz. Given that Saint-Lubin, though a capable violinist, has never played the quartet before, either meaning seems plausible.]

Beethoven’s friend Tobias Haslinger reminds him that he should not forget the Cardinal [Archduke Rudolph.] He is staying in Vienna only a short time. Schlesinger likewise must leave Friday morning at 6 o’clock.

Karl Holz asks whether the third quartet [op.130] is finished yet. [There is still a good deal of work to be done on the Grosse Fuge, though Beethoven may minimize that.] Copyist Wenzel Rampl is to bring the copied score for Schlesinger later today. [This is key, since it will allow Beethoven to get paid.]

Schlesinger asks Karl to accompany him on Thursday. [This may be another visit to Baron Eskeles, about a future position for Karl.]

Holz here writes a canon of six bars, to which Castelli writes the words, “Holz, Holz, geigt die Quartette so, als ob sie Kraut entreten.” [Holz, Holz, plays the quartet as if he were chopping kraut.] This canon was for many years attributed to Beethoven and catalogued as WoO 204 in Kinsky-Halm. It can be seen here from leaf 57r of the conversation book.

Below that, Castelli writes “The Wood [Holz] of Christ is gallows wood.” Holz laughs, “What would Their Eminences say about that?” Castelli retorts, “Because his Eminence would be satisfied with a short piece, with which the women would not be satisfied.”

Schlesinger was yesterday at the coronation of the Empress as Queen of Hungary; he proposes a toast on behalf of Beethoven to the Empress, “Long may she live.” Schlesinger tells Beethoven that he said Beethoven would have said it. He did it without mentioning her name.

Castelli comments, “From one woman can come 10 men, with yet a thief left over. Tomorrow I’ll begin to compose a quartet.” He writes a short poem for the occasion. Schlesinger quiets the crowd, with a mention that yesterday at the second session of the Hungarian Imperial Parliament, when there was a great uproar, King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria said in Latin Stsst. Stsst. and then everything was silent.

Castelli recites:

With music I’ll go to my grave,
That you like to tell me.
You, even you’ll go there too,
But your music will remain.

Castelli writes the poem himself into the conversation book for Beethoven.

Beethoven probably about now presents Schlesinger with a letter containing the completed riddle canon in F major, Si non per portas, WoO 194. The original was owned by a descendant of Schlesinger in Stuttgart when it was probably destroyed during wartime. This canon is here performed by Accentus:

The letter continues: “I wish you the most beautiful bride, my valued friend, and on this occasion may I request that you recommend me to Herr Marx in Berlin, so that he may not be too strict with me and may let me slip out the back door from time to time. Yours, Beethoven. Vienna, the 26th of Septemb. 1825.”

The comment about the bride relates to Schlesinger’s earlier comment that when he marries, he would want to introduce his bride first to Beethoven. Brandenburg Letter 2059, Anderson Letter 1433.

Beethoven asks when Joseph Linke’s benefit concert is to be held. Karl writes (probably after consulting with Linke), November 6.

Castelli in his Memoires, III at page 118 gives a brief account of what happened next: “When the music publisher Schlesinger was in Vienna, he gave a brilliant banquet, which Beethoven and I also enjoyed. After the performance [of the quartet], Beethoven was asked to improvise on the pianoforte, but he refused. It was pressed more and more upon him, until finally he agreed, ‘In the name of three devils, but Castelli, who has no idea how to play the piano, must give me the theme straight away.’ I stepped up to the instrument, touched one of the keys one after the other with my left finger and then lowered them back again. He laughed, said, ‘Very well,’ sat down at the piano, and fantasized, always with a mixture of these 4 notes, for an entire hour until all the listeners were enflamed.” Quoted in TDR V, 244. [Beethoven rarely agreed to extemporize for anyone any more, and he has done so twice for Schlesinger, indicating the high regard Beethoven held for him, even though he was a publisher.]

After the dinner, Beethoven waits for the carriage back to Baden. He reads the newspapers and makes a copy of an advertisement from a woman desiring a housekeeper position. [Beethoven had already copied this advertisement once, but the address was different then.]

Conversation Book 97, 55v-58v.

This concludes Conversation Book 97. The next surviving conversation book starts about five weeks later, so there are between two and five conversation books missing. Unfortunately, these missing books cover Beethoven’s return to Vienna and moving into his quarters in the Schwarzspanierhaus. Our daily column will continue, though the entries until early November likely will be shorter and more sporadic during this lacuna.

If Holz is correct about Rampl having finished the copies of the score of op.132 for Schlesinger, then Holz will in the coming days bring the copy to Beethoven for final proofreading before it can be delivered to Biedermann and the 80 ducats collected. Schlesinger has promised Beethoven would be paid immediately for this quartet, without needing to fool with a bill of exchange. As of October 4, 1825, that delivery has not yet occurred.