BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, January 21, 1826
Either this morning or last night, Beethoven makes some sketches for the string quartet op.131 in C-sharp minor, on leaves 26v and 27r of Conversation Book 102 (here enhanced for legibility). Three times he writes Viol, then along sketches for the beginning of the fourth movement, he writes “to F-sharp minor” and “una corda.”
Holz arrives early in the morning to take care of Beethoven’s correspondence, in particular the letter to Prince Nikolai Galitzin. Artaria also needs a letter for the Censor concerning the dedication for the Ninth; that need merely be shown. Holz mentions that he spoke to Grillparzer about the libretto to Melusine.
Beethoven asks when the tailor is coming; Holz assures him that he is to come today. Holz asks how he liked Mathias Artaria. “He has a sense for Art,” Holz opines. He adds, “Is it true that you sold a Rondo to Dominik Artaria that he hasn’t gotten yet? You would have taken it back and not returned it to him. [This was the scene and aria for soprano and orchestra, Primo amore, WoO 92. It was acquired by Mathias’s father, Domenico Artaria, and loaned back to Beethoven, who never returned it despite requests that he do so. The work was eventually published by another of Domenico’s sons, also named Domenico Artaria, after Beethoven’s death.] Holz asks whether the Variations by Beethoven were engraved by Domenico the elder; Beethoven doesn’t believe they were. [Probably the variations on Là ci darem la mano for two oboes and English horn, WoO 28, which was also among the works published by Domenico Artaria the younger later on.]
The Schuppanzigh Quartet, of which Holz is a member, is rehearsing the quartet op.127 again today. They are practicing at noon because that’s the only time violist Franz Weiss has available.
Holz also plans to report the presence of the new housekeeper to the police; that will be a safeguard against her embezzling. But she hasn’t shown up yet. Holz wonders if she misunderstood and is not coming until tomorrow. “Probably she will arrive here with bag and baggage, and perhaps doesn’t have her baggage organized yet.” She is to go into the City earlier. If she doesn’t come, Beethoven will need to get something delivered from the restaurant. It’s too cold for Beethoven to go out himself. [According to the January 24 Wiener Zeitung at 83, it was about 10-11 degrees Fahrenheit.]
The tailor arrives. There is some question as to whether the tailor is to acquire the cloth for what Beethoven wants made, or whether he has it already. The tailor says the item will be ready by the day after tomorrow [Monday, January 23.]
Holz has to go, but will return at 5 o’clock and be at Beethoven’s disposal until 7. “In the meantime, I’ll learn what’s gone on.” Holz then departs and attends the quartet rehearsal. While he’s gone, Beethoven’s longtime friend Stephan von Breuning comes to visit around dinner time. They discuss von Breuning’s son Gerhard: He doesn’t have much musical talent, and is lacking personal passion as well as the talent. Von Breuning asks whether Beethoven will be going into the City to eat; Beethoven presumably begs off saying the weather is too bad, as Holz had suggested. Von Breuning brings up Beethoven’s former pupils, Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Ries. The latter’s younger brother Joseph is an instrument maker who also gives lessons. [Beethoven had met Joseph Ries in the company of Sir George Smart, for whom he was acting as a sort of musical tour guide, last fall.]
Von Breuning extends an invitation to Beethoven. “My wife asked me to tell you that she is giving a little entertainment tomorrow evening, including dancing, for the children and greater friends, to which she invites you and your nephew—the latter for dancing. We’re gathering at about 6 o’clock in the evening.” Gerhard will play a sonata by Haydn, then the young people will dance and the older folks will play cards; they’ll have something to eat later. Every year, she holds a party in the summer as well.
Von Breuning asks whether Beethoven is always at home in the evening. Beethoven makes his usual complaints about his health. Von Breuning asks if he has his own physician. Dr. Christoph Zang (1772-1835) at the Joseph Akademie of Medicine would be happy to advise Beethoven, but he is always full of doubts. One could always make an appointment to see him.
Beethoven asks if von Breuning knows housekeeper applicant Frau Stigli. He does; she is married with three children, but she’s in a bad way, because her husband is good for nothing. She wants to get a divorce.
Von Breuning departs and Beethoven works on his errand list:
- Title page on the Quartet. [This probably relates to Holz’s request for the dedication to be approved by the Censor.]
- Hat.
- Lobkowitz cashier.
- White wine.
Nephew Karl joins his uncle for a while this afternoon. He drafts for his uncle’s approval some language in French to serve as the dedication for the Quartet op.130: “Third Quartet for Two Violins, Viola, and Violoncello, composed upon Request of H.H. [His Highness] Prince Nicolas Galitzin and Dedicated to the Same, by L. van Beethoven.” He also drafts the address of the letter to accompany the quartet to Galitzin: “In St. Petersburg, in care of Mr. Stieglitz and Company, Bankers.”
The housekeeper showed up at some point after Holz’s departure. Karl says she can stay there for now. Today she is going shopping and Uncle Ludwig will be able to eat at home tomorrow. Ludwig asks what she’s making. Karl says, “Noodle soup, blue cabbage and chestnuts and sausage. Poulard.” She wants to make schnitzel for the evening and soup for daytime dinner. Ludwig asks where she is staying, and Karl says she’s staying there right now.
Karl needs to leave, as he has to go to the Wares Collection [an instructive collection of economic commodities encountered in business] at the Polytechnic Institute, where he is supposed to be every Saturday. Karl will return at mid-day tomorrow.
Despite the cold weather, Beethoven visits a local coffee house to read the newspapers. He makes a note from the papers that Court Preacher Christoph von Ammon (1766-1850) has been awarded the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle 3rd class.
[Anton Schindler adds here a fraudulent entry to make it appear he was in close contact with Beethoven.]
Someone unidentified has been sent by Beethoven to collect his pension from Prince Lobkowitz, but he reports back that he tried four times and failed.
Back at Beethoven’s apartment, Karl Holz returns. The parcel to Galitzin in Russia can go out in a normal envelope. He asks whether he needs to get a receipt from the letter post. He’ll hurry if it’s not too late already, and will take it with him immediately.
Holz returns before too long after running to the post. Probably seeing the invitation from the von Breunings, Holz asks whether Beethoven doesn’t ever go out for social gatherings or somewhere else. Beethoven probably tells him that his deafness makes it too awkward.
Changing the subject, Holz comments about the Broadwood piano, which is out for repairs. It has needed work for so long, that it won’t be a quick process to get it back. Conrad Graf, who is doing the repairs, says that it is horribly out of regulation, but he wants to restore it again as far as possible. In the meantime, Graf is sending a 4-stringed pianoforte to help Beethoven out. It will be delivered Tuesday [January 24.]
Holz fills Beethoven in on the Schuppanzigh Quartet rehearsal today. Schuppanzigh played the op.130 quartet excellently. If the rehearsal tomorrow goes as well (and there will be another rehearsal after that), one will not hear it done better. Schuppanzigh must have practiced an unusual amount in advance at home. On the other hand, the op.127 quartet still needs work and might need to be postponed from tomorrow’s concert.
Beethoven mentions that he needs overshoes. Holz recommends that he get them with felt soles; they prevent slipping.
Holz exchanges some small bills with Beethoven for larger ones, and changes hard money (C.M.) for paper (W.W.) for him.
Holz asks if Beethoven has been to the Zum wilder Mann restaurant. “The cheese has harmed you; as with everything that makes mucous, it provokes you to coughing. Champagne is absolutely the least healthy among the French wines.” He would be better off with old Austrian wines. The Stern restaurant has the best wine in the whole city.
Holz asks about chronology. “How long has it been since the first Galitzin Quartet [op.127] was composed?” Beethoven tells him that he finished it about a year ago, in January of 1825. So it was after the Ninth Symphony, then, Holz concludes.
Beethoven offers Holz dinner, but he declines. He is just thirsty, so he’ll just have some wine and almonds, like the Italians.
Holz mentions that Artaria has lost many subscriptions to the Cäcilia due to the outrage over the essays by Gottfried Weber, including the one bringing into question the authorship of Mozart’s Requiem. It is said that Abbé Stadler intends to print a long essay with the counterargument. Holz questions the wisdom of doing that; “A reply would make something unknown into something that was even more known.” [Stadler’s reply will appear in the Cäcilia later this year, and also as a separate pamphlet privately printed for Stadler.]
Holz asks if Karl stayed long. Beethoven tells him he was only there for a couple minutes and had to go to the Wares Collection at the Polytechnic.
Back to the rehearsal: Joseph Linke, the cellist, also didn’t flinch today. “He is greatly accustomed to laughing so maliciously about someone else’s smallest mistakes, so that they are noticed even if no one else had noticed them. I am very sorry for him; he is not in the best way, also his foot is getting worse.” [Unlike Schuppanzigh and Weiss, Linke does not have a pension.]
Piracy among publishers is a persistent problem. “A single copy can harm the entire edition.” Mathias Artaria said that “if he had been in Vienna, when Artaria, Steiner, and Mollo were favored by fortune, which they did not know how to make use of, then there would have been nothing but classical music at that place. He places his reputation on the fact that he only publishes works by Austrian composers.”
People are finding it odd that the three Galitzin quartets are being published in three different places. Beethoven is considering another fugue for a string quartet. Holz comments that another fugue like the Grosse Fuge could serve for an entire quartet. [This offhand remark may be the seed of the idea that the fugue would be better off being its own work, rather than just a movement of a quartet.]
Mathias is ever watchful. “Mathias in first place, Tobias in last! You know it too. I also said so to the right man, who certainly passed it forward to others—Piringer. If I want Steiner to know something, I only have to tell it to Piringer.”
Beethoven is dreaming again about a home of his own. Holz agrees that he could indeed buy a suburban house. Artaria would be willing to let Beethoven use his house for composing. Beethoven can look at it sometime in the summer. Does Beethoven want to go out to the country again this summer? Yes, Beethoven certainly would. The entire summer, or just for 8 weeks? [He has spent the entire summer out in the country for the last two years, but that gets expensive, especially in Baden.] Holz asks whether mountain regions are beneficial for his health. Holz suggests the village of Hütteldorf, west of Vienna, as a possibility. For better relaxation, he should get an apartment that is not on the postal road. Poet Ignaz Castelli bought a house out there. Beethoven asks how much it cost him; Holz says 4,000 florins W.W. Or if Beethoven wants to be near the City, there’s a spa in Meidling. But the anti-Semitic Holz comments that there are many Jews there.
Beethoven feels very tired after this long day. Holz says he should go to bed soon. He deals with too many people who waste his time. It makes it difficult for Beethoven to write in such circumstances, if he doesn’t see that. He ought to disregard the human condition, in favor of composing.
The Schuppanzigh Quartet’s rehearsal of op.127 tomorrow will decide whether or not they perform it at the concert. Holz departs for the evening and Beethoven goes to bed.
Conversation Book 102, 26v-40v.