BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, December 18, 1824

Copyist Ferdinand Wolanek is back at Beethoven’s apartment today. He brings news that St. Michael’s Church and several houses in Heiligenstadt have burned down. [This occurred yesterday, December 17.] Uncle Ludwig asks what happened. They were struck by lightning. [A lightning and thunderstorm occurred about 8:15 p.m. on December 17, and the tower and roof of the church were destroyed. The church’s three bells fell to the ground and were shattered. The severest weather lasted only ten minutes, but it was followed by a snowstorm that lasted for hours. Wiener Zeitung Nr.291 for Monday December 20, 1824 at 1242, and weather report at 1243.]

Wolanek knows Leopold Schmutzer, another copyist, who had done work for Beethoven at one time, and received a salary. Ludwig asks how Schmutzer is. “He is still alive and drinks a horrible amount. Often 10 Mass of wine in one day.”

Wolanek believes that in order to be a good copyist, one must also be a good singer. Beethoven’s favorite copyist, the late Wenzel Schlemmer comes up. Wolanek says that he had been a copyist in Vienna for 40 years. [Wolanek is copying for Beethoven in connection with Schlemmer’s widow, Josepha.]

Wolanek is full of musical gossip. He says Rossini is in Paris once more; he will not come back to Vienna again. Beethoven appears to mention that Rossini visited him privately several times in 1822 when he was in the City. Wolanek asks whether he also made a formal visit. He did not, but there were several informal visits. [Beethoven probably does not mention the financial assistance that Rossini gave him at that time.]

Beethoven mentions that the score of the Ninth Symphony is being prepared for the London Philharmonic Society, which had commissioned the work. Wolanek agrees that “The English value–and pay for–Art.” Beethoven [probably once again irritated that the now-King of England failed to reward him for the dedication of Wellington’s Victory, op.91, one of his most popular works] notes that it is a land of wealth and the King is rich too. Wolanek answers, “Our sovereign [Emperor Franz] is the richest monarch, and his country is poor.” Wolanek probably departs after delivering his copies and taking away more to work on.

Karl says they must look for another maid. [Karl’s references to Fridays and Mondays in this discussion are quite confused, but we have given our best guess as to what the dates he means are. They seem very conflicted over wanting to get rid of her, versus being left without a maid while they look for her replacement.] Her week’s time is up on Monday. [December 27]. Ludwig asks who set that up; Karl reminds him that Uncle Ludwig first told the maid that himself. That was on Friday. [Probably a week from yesterday, December 10.] Then Ludwig allowed her to stay on again, since she later complained again, and Ludwig entrusted Karl to give her notice as of Monday. [Last Monday, December 13.] But on Friday [yesterday, December 17, the day after the brawl with the housekeeper] she wanted to leave, but Karl told her she had to remain 14 days, which needed to be calculated from Monday. [December 27, two weeks from Monday ,December 13.] Then she seemed to behave herself better, so Ludwig wanted to give her 3 florins more. Karl told her about that, and it made her happy. But then Thursday evening [the 16th, when she tussled with the housekeeper] she was displeased. She then wanted to leave immediately on Friday [December 17]. Karl repeated to her what he had said before, namely that she had to stay for 8 more days, until the next Monday [December 27.] Karl thinks that they will probably find another kitchen maid within 8 days. In any event, she doesn’t want to stay, and she gave her two weeks’ notice today, which means her last day would be New Year’s Day [a Saturday. But she actually leaves on the 27th].

Karl drafts another advertisement for a new housekeeper. He will deliver it to the Wiener Zeitung tomorrow. Unless, of course, Uncle Ludwig wants to take on Maria Pamer, who had been their servant for some time earlier, as housekeeper. Uncle Ludwig says no, continue with the advertisement.

The text of the new version of the advertisement says: “Housekeeper sought. A widow of moral character, who is well acquainted with the art of cooking and who has already managed a household, and who can read and write readily, is sought for employment as a housekeeper for 300 fl. W.W. per year. Inquire for further details at Johannisgasse [sic] No.969, on the 4th floor [5th floor American], door to the right, from 8 to 9 and 12 to 1 o’clock daily.”

Karl notes that recently a person came collecting alms for the men and women at the St. Marx’s home for the aged poor, and housekeeper Barbara Holzmann gave him some money, without mentioning that she had a place reserved there for herself.

Karl also will deliver the stamped sheet at the Sacristy of St. Stephan’s, for another verification that Ludwig is alive so that he can collect on his annuity. Karl also needs to buy his uncle some rubber bands [probably for the copies of the Missa Solemnis subscription scores.] He departs on his errands.

While he is gone, Uncle Ludwig makes a short shopping list:

+Candles.
+Wax candles.

Beethoven writes to Prince Nikolai Galitzin in St. Petersburg today, announcing that the first quartet that is being composed for the Prince will be sent in 14 days. [The quartet is not sent until March, 1825.]

Brandenburg Letter 1913a. The letter is not known to exist, but its date and contents can be deduced from the description in Ludwig Nohl, Neue Briefe Beethovens, Stuttgart 1867, p.272.

Karl returns later, probably around dinner time, with Brother Johann. Karl says that today, as he went across the Hoher Markt to the Police Headquarters to get approval of the housekeeper advertisement for the Wiener Zeitung, there was a woman standing on the scaffold. [Not for execution, but with stocks or chains for public humiliation, according to editor Theodore Albrecht.] Uncle Ludwig asks what her crime was. Karl says it was for procuring. “A girl of 18 years”. Johann chimes in that they hang all the little thieves, and let the big ones go.

Uncle Ludwig’s change is 10 kreutzers. The rubber bands cost 18 kreutzers. Karl kept some as a tip as well. Uncle Ludwig observes the rubber bands are stiff and need to be softened. Karl says the merchant said it should be done in warm water.

Johann says that Adolf Bäuerle is crafty about managing his theater newspaper. Ludwig asks how much he makes each year on it. 12,000 florins, Johann responds. How much of that is profit, Ludwig wonders. According to Bäuerle’s secretary, it is 7,000 florins net profit.

Bäuerle also gets paid a considerable amount for the plays that he writes, and he also gets a salary from the Leopoldstadt Theater. For the opera libretto for Lindane, upon which Friedrich August Kanne wrote the music, Bäuerle was paid 1,200 florins. [The opera had premiered on March 27, 1824.]

Housekeeper Barbara Holzmann tells the maid she is curious as to whether she won’t have to cook anything today either.

These discussions of finances make Ludwig want to review what money they have coming in the near future.

The 50 ducats from Prince Galitzin for the first of the three string quartets he commissioned has arrived with Count Lebzeltern, the Austrian ambassador to St. Petersburg.

The money from Prince Lobkowitz on Beethoven’s annuity can also be obtained as soon as tomorrow. It’s always available by the 20th. [Prof. Albrecht notes that this comment suggests it is written Sunday on the 19th, but all the other remarks indicate that this is a business day, so Karl may just be mistaken about the date.]

In the afternoon, Uncle Ludwig and Karl visit a coffeehouse and as usual read the newspapers closely. They see the advertisement for the Christmas concert to benefit St. Marx, and that Ignaz von Seyfried (1776-1841) is conducting. [Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture has been borrowed for the occasion. Seyfried is on the staff of the Theater an der Wien, and later will write a book about Beethoven’s counterpoint studies with Albrechtsberger (with whom Seyfried had likewise studied.)]

Karl mentions that Seyfried had also done an arrangement of a Mozart piano fantasy for full orchestra, and it had been performed at one of the Concerts spirituel on March 18, 1824. Someone he did not know came up to Seyfried afterwards, and told him to his face: “I find it very presumptuous of Seyfried that he did this; Mozart would have done it himself, if he had thought it the right thing to do.”

Uncle Ludwig has a laugh at this, and facetiously suggests he should conduct the Christmas concert himself. Karl agrees that it would be thumbing the nose at the locals. Karl adds, “With a truly good and well-rehearsed orchestra, you would surely be able to conduct without any assistance.”

Karl makes a few remarks about housekeeper Barbara Holzmann. “She did not make note of the partridge! Conscientia! She says that she doesn’t like coffee without chicory! I always see beer out there [in the kitchen.]”

The incident with visitor Johann Andreas Stumpff from London giving Matthäus Andreas Stein instructions about how to repair Beethoven’s Broadwood piano comes up. Stein was upset that Stumpff explained to him the whole inner mechanism of the English piano, which he surely didn’t know. “It is horrible that he did not show himself at all. Presumably he prefers seeking to attract knowledgeable people through his own make-work.” Karl recently saw Stein riding on horseback.

Conversation Book 78, 4r-5r; Conversation Book 79, 26r-22r.

The firm of Sauer & Leidesdorf advertises in today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.290) quite a few works by Franz Schubert. Two of these compositions have not appeared in these pages before: Trois Marches héroiques for piano four hands, op.27 (today catalogued as D.602), and Der Gondelfahrer, op.28, set for two tenors and two basses on a text by Johann Mayrhofer (D.809). Both works were in fact new, having been completed earlier in 1824. Schubert also made another setting of this poem, D.808, for solo voice with piano, at about the same time.

Schubert’s set of Three Heroic Marches for piano four hands, D.602, is here performed by Duo Crommelynck: