BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, July 10, 1824 (approximately)

Beethoven and housekeeper Barbara Holzmann travel to Baden bei Wien to hunt for an apartment, most likely today. They speak to a young woman who is a bathing servant at the Karolinenbad. Her father is the administrator, and she says she will speak to him about making a reduction in the fees for Beethoven. The composer is gratified and writes to Holzmann, so he is not overheard, “Nice girl, lovely child.” But as it turns out, the gentleman is not at home, and will be back in an hour. Beethoven can speak with him then.

They look at apartments, and find an interesting one at the Schloss Gutenbrunn, about a quarter mile west of Baden. This location had been recommended to Beethoven by his attorney, Johann Baptist Bach. The rent is 45 florins per month, but if Beethoven will take the place for two months, he will knock off 5 florins. Beethoven is hesitant, so the administrator sweetens the deal. If Beethoven rents for two months, he’ll only charge for six weeks. That would be 60 florins C.M. for the two months. There are 4 rooms, a large kitchen, and a storeroom in this first floor apartment (second floor American). Fraulein Bossier has been in the apartment since May.

They look at another, larger, apartment with six rooms and two storerooms. For Beethoven only, the landlord will let him have it at 80 florins C.M. Holzmann describes the furnishings in the various apartments. The larger one would have six chairs, a chest of drawers, a sofa, table and bedstead. You also get a night toilet.

Beethoven agrees to take one of the apartments in the annex to Schloss Gutenbrunn. This was about a five minute walk away from Baden. The palace is owned by Johann and Barbara Schimmer, though it is commonly referred to as Baron Wetzler’s House, after a former owner. The castle and the annex no longer exist, and the building was reconstructed as a sanatorium and is now a thermal spa and sports hotel. A photo by Anton Schiestl circa 1927 of the original annex building from the Bonn Beethovenhaus is attached, catalogued as P/1901 Musi.

Beethoven will move here in a week, on July 17.

Conversation Book 73, 5v-10r.

Heinrich Albert Probst writes from Leipzig today to Beethoven, announcing that he has forwarded a bill of exchange for 100 ducats to the firm of Loydl & Co. in Vienna, in payment for the various small works he has agreed to purchase. This bill of exchange is in accordance with Beethoven’s letter to Probst of July 3.

Brandenburg Letter 1850. The letter is not known to survive, but its date and contents are known from two other letters.

Today’s Wiener Zeitschrift (Nr.83) at 717 includes the conclusion of the report on concerts given in Paris during the month of March, 1824. “There is no lack of musical entertainment. The concert by Mad. [Marie] Szymanowska, the Empress of Russia’s first piano player, was very well attended. She performed particularly well in a difficult composition by Beethoven, which she performed with great mastery. The talented boy Franz Liszt gave a large musical Akademie in the Théatre Italien, which was also very well received. He played a grand Concerto by Hummel, then variations by Czerny, and finally he improvised variations on a theme from Le nozze di Figaro, and the young artist received stormy applause. After the concert, he had to appear in the boxes with the ladies, who showered him with compliments and presented him with bonbons.” [Liszt’s Akademie concert occurred on Sunday, March 7, 1824. The Czerny work performed by Liszt was his Variations for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat major; the Hummel work was his Concerto Nr.3 in B minor, op.89.]

Adam Liszt, Franz’s father, wrote, “This concert was a public triumph for my boy. From the moment he appeared, the applause was almost without end; after every ‘passage’ there was enthusiasm and the liveliest expressions of astonishment. After every piece he was brought back two or three times and applauded. The gentlemen of the orchestra relentlessly tapped their bows on the backs of their basses, cellos, violas, and violins, the brass players shouted themselves hoarse, and everyone was indescribably enchanted.” Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years at 98.

Artaria & Co. advertises in today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.156) at 656 the new publication of Carl Czerny’s Rondoletto brillant in E-flat for the pianoforte, op.72, on the popular Cavatina from the opera L’Italiana in Algeri by Rossini, as sung by the tenor (or more specifically, a contraltino, purportedly able to sing a high f”) Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854). Rubini had originated the role of Lindoro in the opera in 1815.