BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, April 22, 1826

Nephew Karl visits Beethoven today. The washerwoman is here, hanging the laundry outside. It went slowly with the washing and she says there was too much laundry, and too few clotheslines, so she could not hang everything at once.

Karl looks back at Kuffner’s comments. He assures his uncle that the new oratorio libretto Kuffner is writing, on Saul, will be more beautiful than Der Sieg des Kreuzes.

Karl expected to find Brother Johann here, but he has not come. Perhaps he has gone to Gneixendorf or Linz.

While Karl is here, Uncle Ludwig dictates to him a letter to publisher Maurice Schlesinger in Paris, dated today.

“Dear Friend!”

“I have just received your letter of April 13th. I am replying to it just as quickly, so that the gap that has arisen in our correspondence may soon be filled, and I inform you that in 14 days, at the most 3 weeks, a new Quartet will be completed. [The String Quartet op.131 in C-sharp minor.] I request that you transfer the sum of 80 ducats immediately in Imperial and Royal gold ducats. However, please do not delay, for there is now a demand for quartets from all sides, and it truly seems that our age is advancing.”

“I learned from your letter that you misinterpreted my writing, for I gave the quartet not to my brother, but to Mathias Artaria. My brother, however, was also with Biedermann [Schlesinger’s agent in Vienna. Biedermann had refused to pay for the quartet op.130 because he had not received any recent instructions to do so from Schlesinger.] You can see, therefore, that nothing can be changed with regard to that Quartet. As for the other quartets and quintets that you wish to have, I will endeavor to complete them as soon as possible.” [Beethoven had promised Schlesinger at least one more string quartet and three string quintets when he visited Vienna in September of last year.]

“I thank you most sincerely for your friendly sentiments. As for the trip to London, I will explain myself at the next opportunity.”

“I ask you to hasten with the payment of the fee, and at the same time ask you to indicate to me the place where I am to receive it upon delivery of the new Quartet.”

“I will also deliver the score of the Quartet in A minor [op.132] there, which I would have sent you long ago if I had only received a message from you.” [Schlesinger received the parts of the quartet in September of 1825, but also asked for the autograph, which Beethoven refused to give him. He however promised to have a copy made of the full score for him, which has been made by copyist Wenzel Rampl.]

“I wish you all the best and remain ever in friendship and affection, your most devoted BEETHOVEN.”

Nephew Karl adds a postscript: “I, too, as the writer of this letter, thank you most sincerely for remembering me and hope that you will fulfill your promise to visit us again very soon in Vienna. KARL” [Schlesinger had made arrangements for Karl to get a position in a banking house after his graduation from the Polytechnic Institute.]

Brandenburg Letter 2148; Anderson Letter 1481. The whereabouts of the original are unknown; the text is derived from Jean Chantavoine, Deux lettres de Beethoven in Le Ménestrel 86 (1924), p.138. A notation from the Schlesinger firm on the letter indicates that a reply was sent to Beethoven on May 23. Unfortunately, that reply does not survive and its contents are unknown.

Karl would like 15 kreutzers, if his uncle has them at hand. He would like to get his gloves cleaned today as they are already very dirty. He’ll get them back in the morning tomorrow. Karl presumably goes to get his gloves cleaned.

Later today, Beethoven visits a coffee house and makes note of an advertisement in today’s Intelligenzblatt: “Horsehair fabric to be had Alte wieden haup[t]straße, beginning of Waaggasse No.274 by Praschinger [mirror factory. Beethoven, usually careful in his copying of such advertisements, mistakenly added the address from the advertisement below. The horsehair fabric factory was actually at Neue Gasse No.48 in the suburb of Mariahilf.]

Conversation Book 109, 27v-28r.