BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, June 10, 1826
An applicant for the constantly-turning-over housekeeper position shows up, and tells Beethoven that she understands cooking. Karl adds that she lives in Mariahilf with Frau Seiss. He has made an appointment with another candidate for tomorrow; she came to him earlier today, but could not come today. She says that she can do everything herself, so she would not need a maid. Karl told his landlady Frau Schlemmer that the other candidate had allowed for 30 kreutzers for soup ingredients; she couldn’t believe it.
Karl thinks all of them [probably overcoats] are too short. The piqué will not be expensive. Karl has given the tailor his uncle’s brown overcoat for repair, and the buttons on his blue overcoat looked bad. “You must not leave that for too long, or it will be completely ruined.”
Another candidate interviewed today, Elisabeth Passy, understands cooking very well, and she cooks in the same way that Uncle Ludwig explained to her. She thinks she will have to shop for all the supplies once a week. But she will divide it up in a way that satisfies him. She lives on the Krongasse with her four children, but she has a person who takes such good care of them she doesn’t have to be there herself. Uncle Ludwig is inclined to hire Passy, whom he has met before. She was the daughter of wholesaler Ferdinand Bertoli, and Beethoven had written a song in her album once. Now she has fallen on hard times; her husband’s business went bankrupt in 1817 and he is presently an office clerk. Cloth dealer Johann Wolfmayer, a longtime supporter of Beethoven (possibly related to the Bertoli family) will be pleased that he has hired her, Karl thinks.
Ludwig asks Karl his opinion of Passy. “I like her very much. I think you would be satisfied with her.—However [if Uncle Ludwig changes his mind] you can still postpone it; she does not live far from me, so I can easily go to her.” She hopes to gain honor from her service to Beethoven. She thinks that the portrait of Beethoven by Stephan Decker (1784-1844) that was published by the Lithographic Institute in 1824 is a very good likeness. Karl arranges for her to be paid 40 florins W.W. each month. She had to sell her silver for 800 florins in order to survive. “She says she only wants to have an honest income.” Burgpastor Jacob Frint (1766-1834) looks after her, and has promised to engage her eldest son Eduard as a boy chorister. “She asks you not to change your idea regarding her; and if possible, make up your mind soon. She would go with you to the countryside. She is used to the work.” Passy departs now.
Karl says he will go to her place and see what it looks like; that will give him an idea of how she keeps house.
Karl asks his uncle what he would like for dinner tonight. The menu is hot boiled chicken with noodles.
Karl does some computations and concludes that his mother Johanna has 416 1/2 florins W.W. from the pension, after the contribution for Karl’s education. Johann Caspar Hofbauer, the father of her illegitimate daughter Ludovika, has paid off her debts. He also took care of the sale of her house, which was inherited from Karl’s father, Caspar Carl.
Karl reminds his uncle that, “Once in Nussdorf, you composed a song for her [Passy], which you gave to her. Your brother tried to persuade her to give it to him, but she refused.” Johann lives very cheaply out in the country, on 24 kreutzers per day. Ludwig is patronizing towards Karl, who gets angry. “I am not a child.”
Karl changes the subject. He would like to go to see Schiller’s tragedy Die Braut von Messina tonight at the Burg Theater. They are doing the choruses in the style of a Greek tragedy. Uncle Ludwig makes a comment about how rich the language of Schiller is, compared to music that he is intending to write for the oratorio Saul; Karl jokingly points out that there are only seven notes to work with in the modes, while there are 24 letters. Perhaps Uncle Ludwig will get an idea from the history of music by Charles Burney, which had been sent as a gift by Burney’s granddaughter, Sarah Burney Payne. “Many things can surely be imitated from the old instruments.”
Uncle Ludwig despairs of being able to go out into the country this summer; it is already mid-June. Karl tries to comfort him; “If the money would come in, you could go to the country. She [Passy] would gladly go along with you.”
On top of the oratorio, he still has to write another quartet that he promised to Maurice Schlesinger in Paris. Karl reminds him that he also owes Schlesinger three string quintets. Uncle Ludwig doubts that Schlesinger will pay for them. Karl is adamant; “I have it from him in writing, that he will take them.” Uncle Ludwig reminds him that Schlesinger did not take the op.130 quartet. Karl puts the blame for that on Schlesinger’s agent in Vienna, Biedermann, who was afraid to act without instructions, and Schlesinger relied on him. But Uncle Ludwig should never be afraid to sell his work.
The Broadwood [Karl calls it “the English piano”] needs to be retrieved from Conrad Graf’s shop. The loaner from Graf is not as clear in tone as the Broadwood.
Uncle Ludwig wonders whether they could go back to Schloss Gutenbrunn in Baden again this year. Karl points out that the administrator of the Schloss said that they would be less strict on terms for him. “We could go out there one Sunday.”
Uncle Ludwig makes a note to get pencils. He goes out, probably to drink coffee and read the newspapers, and sees slippers are to be had at the Wollzeile, making a note of it as well. Karl goes to the theater; the show will be the subject of discussion tomorrow.
Conversation Book 112, 11v-17v.
Today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.131) at 558 includes an advertisement from S.A.Steiner & Co. for the newest published composition by Beethoven’s former pupil Carl Czerny, 3 Rondos pour le Pianoforte: Tendresse, Amitié et Confiance [Tenderness, Friendship, and Trust], op.117.