BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, December 29, 1821

The Wiener Zeitung today contains an advertisement for a series of concerts by popular demand featuring the wind quintets of Czech composer Anton Reicha (1770-1836). These Akademie concerts are to be held starting tomorrow, December 30th at noon, with additional concerts on Friday January 4 and Sunday January 13th, 1822. In addition to Reicha’s celebrated wind quintets, the concerts will include a vocal scene, and masterworks by Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, and Spohr. One-fourth of the proceeds are to be given to the benefit of elderly women. Subscription tickets to all three concerts were available at the music shops of Steiner & Co. and Cappi & Diabelli.

While Beethoven did not compose any wind quintets as such, he did write a number of chamber works that prominently feature winds, such as the hugely popular Septet, op.20, the Sextet op.81b, the Trio for Oboes and English Horn in C op.87; and his Octet for winds, op.103. Since the Septet and Sextet would require the addition of strings, the Octet seems like the most likely candidate for these concerts.

The Flanders Symphony Orchestra here plays Beethoven’s delightful Octet:

Reicha was a contemporary of Beethoven, just a few months older, and they were longtime friends from the days a decade earlier when Reicha lived in Vienna. Ludwig was probably pleased at the association.

Our next update will be New Year’s Day, 1822. We will continue our intermittent updates through the New Year until the Conversation Books finally resume for a few weeks in May. Thank you for your patience as we struggle through this nearly two-year gap with our attempts to provide a daily picture of Beethoven’s doings and his world.