BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, April 10, 1824

Beethoven makes a note of Schindler and Schiller. [The latter may be a reminder to get the vellum Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller for Nephew Karl.] He also makes a note to write a “Letter concerning the monstrous mother.” [Johanna van Beethoven, Karl’s mother. Beethoven has been paying the interest on her debts, grudgingly, and he disapproves of her morals.]

The to-do list continues:

+Wax candles
+Blotting sand
Withdraw
Overture in C
Parts [probably a reminder to write to Hensler and ask where the parts are to the Consecration of the House Overture, so the additional parts needed for the larger orchestra can be copied before the Akademie concert.]
Blotting Sand [again]

The tailor visits Beethoven. The remarks of the tailor are unclear, but he appears to have pre-shrunk the flannel used on an item of clothing for Beethoven.

Beethoven continues his shopping list:

+Wax candles [again]
+Razor
+Sattler St. Stephan [Beethoven previously marked that he needed red pencils for corrections from Sattler’s]
3 Hymns
Hymn 1
Hymn 2
Hymn 3
[The last four lines reflect that the Censor would not permit the movements of the Mass to be publicized or used in advertising. This was also the case when several movements of the Mass in C were presented in Beethoven’s 1808 Akademie benefit concert.]

In the afternoon, Beethoven meets unpaid assistant Anton Schindler, probably in a coffee house. He confirms that they cannot use the names Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei; even Biblical subjects are forbidden by the Censor. If calling them hymns isn’t acceptable, they could call it an oratorio. [Beethoven and Schindler, in soliciting subscriptions to the Missa Solemnis in 1823, had several times tried to interest purchasers by saying the Mass could be performed as an oratorio.] The Emperor supposedly said things could soon become better if Count Joseph Sedlnitzky (1778-1855), the President of the Imperial High Police and Censor’s Bureau, were to leave. The theater administrators, according to Schindler, have complained about the excessive strictness of his censorship.

Schindler says he will pick up the proofread copy of the Finale of the Ninth Symphony at Beethoven’s place, tomorrow morning by 9 a.m. at the latest. [Schindler will then take it to Peter Gläser to extract the parts, which will then be proofread and copied.] That will be the shortest way.

As to scheduling of the Akademie concert at the Theater an der Wien, Schindler says that they are holding a grand spectacle play at that theater on Saturday the 24th, and they will need to rehearse the entire week preceding. So that will put Beethoven off until the second week after Easter. [Easter is April 18th, so the week of the 25th]. Schindler thinks it therefore urgent that Beethoven go and talk to the theater manager, Vogel, personally on Monday, April 12. The choruses cannot rehearse next week due to Holy Week and nearly everyone going out into the country. So they have to rehearse the week after Easter.

Schindler gets the idea that Beethoven should insist on the 24th for his Akademie, and they can postpone the play until the 26th. [He seems to unrealistically be putting aside what he just said about their need for the theater.] Beethoven suggests that they do their play on the 22nd. Schindler explains that won’t work, since the Choruses can’t start rehearsing until Tuesday, April 20th. [Easter Monday, April 19, is also a holiday.]

Schindler says that an advertisement should be placed in the Wiener Zeitung, as the offical state newspaper, without further ado. Beethoven returns to the idea of doing the concert on April 24. Schindler says that even if they can’t do it on the 24th, they could certainly do it before April 30th. But Beethoven must see Vogel and the owner of the theater, Count Palffy, on Monday. Schindler suggests that he come along, then strikes that out of the conversation book, perhaps based on an objection by Beethoven.

Vogel understands that some changes in the schedule will need to be made to accommodate Beethoven, and has said as much. But they still don’t know what needs to be changed because Beethoven has not settled on a date. Schindler also notes that Vogel said right now they have no money at all in their cash box, so the 1,000 florins from Beethoven’s Akademie will also help out their empty treasury. [Schindler had previously gossiped that the Theater an der Wien was in such dire financial straits that they had not paid the orchestra for some time.]

Beethoven still has his heart set on the large Redoutensaal, and asks whether Schindler had talked to the manager, Louis Antoine Duport. Schindler says he looked for Duport twice yesterday but was unable to find him. So Schindler left Beethoven’s letter there for him, and asked that he reply soon. [Presumably Beethoven’s letter, which is not known to survive, is a calmer version of the furious one he drafted in late March, and asks what availability there is for the large Redoutensaal.]

Beethoven begins reading the newspapers. He spots a summer place in Breitensee [a village west of Vienna, near Penzing.] and suggests that might be suitable for him. Schindler thinks not. “Do you know how Breitensee is situated? You would die of boredom in Breitensee. All around it, no shade for at least the distance of a half hour’s walk, and also not much in the village itself. In this respect, Penzing is decidedly preferable.”

Schindler goes on his way, and Beethoven continues reading the newspapers. He ignores Schindler’s cautions and copies down the advertisement for a summer apartment in Breitensee, about an hour from Vienna in a spa village.

There is something in the Legal Notices that catches Beethoven’s eye. Beethoven’s former unpaid assistant up until the end of 1820, Franz Oliva, is in hot legal water in Vienna. In today’s Amts-Blatt [Official Gazette] supplement to the Wiener Zeitung Nr.83 at 337, the Vienna magistrate publishes a summons to Oliva, now working as a Professor of German at the imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoje Selo near St. Petersburg. It seems that he has been sued by his former employer, Anton Offenheimer, former manager of Offenheimer Brothers. [Oliva had been a clerk for the Offenheimer & Herz banking and warehousing firm that wholesaled Hungarian products from about 1806 until mid-December 1819, including its brief incarnation as Offenheimer Brothers between 1813 and 1815. During at least part of that time, Oliva was working on behalf of Offenheimer Brothers in Hungary. At the end of 1819, he went to work for Joseph Biedermann, a wool importer, in a similar capacity]. Offenheimer obtained a judgment against Oliva [probably a default judgment] on May 13, 1823 for certain bonds related to loans made to Count Paul von Bethlen of Transylvania (1783-1866) in 1803 for 20,000 florins and 1809 for 10,000 florins. The claim being made against Oliva is for 3,643 florins, at 6 percent interest from April 30, 1811, and court fees. Notice is given to Oliva of a hearing on July 2, 1824 at 10 a.m. “The same is hereby notified of this, so that he can appear personally at the stated time, or send his legal remedies to the designated representative, [local court lawyer Dr. Klementschütz,] or appoint another administrator himself, and make known to the court what would be useful in his defense. Otherwise, he will have to face the consequences resulting from his failure to do so himself.” The edict/notice is dated Vienna, March 26, 1824.

It is unclear why Oliva would have been liable for these two obligations, especially since the larger of the two was incurred before he even started working for Offenheimer. Perhaps he was induced to guarantee the payment of these debts somehow. But if Oliva was facing this kind of liability, it is no wonder why he stayed in Russia rather than returning to Vienna in spring of 1821, as his visa had provided. Unfortunately, the very limited literature on Franz Oliva, an exceedingly overlooked person in Beethoven’s biography, sheds no light on this problem. It is unclear whether Oliva responded, either by proxy or in person, or whether a default was entered against him. Good luck collecting from him in St. Petersburg, though.

This summons is repeated in the Amts-Blatt supplement for April 13, 1824, at 350.

Beethoven sees the summons for his old unpaid assistant Franz Oliva, and copies down that he is now Professor of the German Language in St. Petersburg, at the Imperial Lyceum of Zarskojeslo. He may write to Oliva to warn him that there is trouble brewing for him back in Vienna, but if he did the letter does not survive. Unfortunately, all of his letters to Oliva were lost in a fire, according to Oliva’s daughter Elisabeth.

Beethoven makes a note to himself that he should publicize the fact he received a gold medal from King Louis XVIII of France, perhaps by a putting a notice in the Mode-Zeitung [the Wiener Zeitschrift. The notice was published in the Wiener Zeitung, Beobachter and the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung newspapers, in the latter of which an illustration of the medal was also published.]

Beethoven returns home in the evening to find Nephew Karl there, who greets him “Good fellow! Be careful!!!” [Did Beethoven trip and fall coming into the apartment?]

Karl suggests that they should visit the banker Baron Johann Bapist von Puthon (1773-1839). His wife Antonie was happy to see them in Baden. Her condition is very pitiful, and she could suffer a difficult death at any time. [In fact, unbeknownst to Karl, she had already died on February 14, 1824. According to her obituary in the February 19 Wiener Zeitung, which Beethoven seems to have missed reading, she died of a discharge of pus into her lungs, which indeed seems like a difficult and miserable way to go.]

They will need a new housekeeper as of Monday, April 12. “If only we succeed in finding the right woman.” The cook says that Countess Stockhammer had much the same taste in foods as Beethoven.

Baroness von Born, who ran the boarding house where Karl spent his evenings when at the university, seems to have found out they needed a housekeeper. An annoyed Karl felt she was sticking her nose into things when she attempted to advise them about which housekeeper to prefer. Karl said that they already had one; even if that wasn’t true, Ludwig could estimate the worthiness of each one himself. They just need an ordinary, honorable person. They don’t need musical knowledge, which too many of the applicants emphasize. The work is too hard for the current cook, who makes “almost a banquet every day.”

Karl mentions that actor Ferdinand Esslair, on tour from the Munich Court Theater, gave his last show in Vienna today. “There is really no one to compare with him here.” Heinrich Anschütz is his student. Nikolaus Herter (1781-1844) is one of the best actors. Karl says, “He pleased me uncommonly well. The ensemble is actually what makes our National Theater the best in German-speaking lands. Other countries have greater individual actors.”

Uncle Ludwig makes an unrecorded remark, with which Karl agrees enthusiastically: “Good fellow! That is the same to us. We are in one as in the other–extraordinary.”

Uncle Ludwig complains about the incessant proofreading. Karl suggests he should get an eyeshade to tie to his head to protect his eyes.

Conversation Book 61, 7v-14r.

In Mainz, music publisher B. Schott’s Sons writes to Beethoven. In a followup to their letter of March 24, they suggest that the security for the four payments for the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony would be provided by a local banker. If Beethoven thinks that the planned schedule of payments is too long, they would be willing to listen to other proposals. They will do all they can to comply with his needs.

Brandenburg Letter 1809; Albrecht Letter 356. The original is in the hand of J.J. Schott, and is held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (aut.35,72b).

On page 74 of today’s Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.19, the following brief (and incorrect) announcement/gossip is found:

“According to belief, our Beethoven is to give a large musical evening entertainment for his benefit later this month (probably on the 22nd) at the Theater an der Wien, in which we will hear his latest compositions.”

Jeremias Bermann advertises for sale in today’s Wiener Zeitung at 360 Beethoven’s aria with piano accompaniment, Das Glück der Freundschaft, op.88.