BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, June 5, 1824
Nephew Karl is somewhat annoyed that his Uncle is not yet ready to move out to the country, since he has two days off in which to assist. Karl suggests Uncle Ludwig would be less vexed if he were to have his meals brought in rather than taking a cook with him to the country.
The dedication of a work to Ludwig some time ago by recent visitor Carlo Soliva comes up, and Karl notes that while his uncle has received many such dedications, they have generally been works of questionable value.
Once Uncle Ludwig moves to the country, Karl plans to move into the apartment in the City, along with his friend Carl Enk. They will need about 6 florins per month for cleaning, fetching water, cleaning boots, etc. for the two of them.
Uncle Ludwig still can’t remember the house number of the rental in Penzing, and doesn’t seem to be able to lay his hands on the rent receipt. Former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler had arranged the rental, so Ludwig is unsure of what the house number was. Karl observes that if he had it, the old woman, housekeeper Barbara Holzmann, could find the place and start setting it up.
Karl apparently had problems with an examination relating to a public lecture of some sort. The professor’s delivery was so fast, Karl couldn’t write everything down. It didn’t help that he is unaccustomed to public lectures, and then the subject itself is difficult.
Uncle Ludwig starts in on Karl not paying sufficient attention to his studies, and Karl counters that his time is taken up with sundry things. “I shall not say anything at all about the disturbances that have taken place through our housekeeping and other unavoidable things, except that I have had to miss several study groups, as you yourself know.”
Karl continues that it is not the same thing in a college lecture as in private lessons; he cannot ask the professor to hold the missed lecture another time. Notes written by other people are seldom useful and are never the same thing as actually being there. “You speak of the many other people who have taken the examinations. Then you can also investigate how they did it. Even now, there are around 100 fewer than in the first semester.” Karl thinks it will nevertheless be alright. He has a week’s time to prepare before every examination. Now he is working for the second examination, which is about a month after the first one. He will be ready at the end of June.
Karl expects that Frau Schnaps [Holzmann] will be able to make her entry into Penzing on Thursday, June 10. He believes his uncle will not be disappointed in her. Ludwig thinks that will be a powerful incentive. Karl wryly observes that so will the increased pay.
Conversation Book 71, 20r-23v.
Today’s Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.38 (June 5, 1824) at 149-151 contains the first part of a very lengthy three-installment review of Beethoven’s two Akademie concerts by editor Friedrich August Kanne. You may recall he recently visited Beethoven to look at the scores of the pieces for purposes of writing this essay. The review, which is accompanied by a lovely lithographed portrait of the composer, opens with an appreciative overview of Beethoven’s works, “in comparison to modern composers.” His earlier works, especially for piano and instrumental compositions all display a striving for an inner freedom. “Beethoven’s genius is precisely due to the organic concatenation of all his musical ideas, in which the diversity is brought to unity in this wonderful way, and developed with the bold originality that rejects the forms respected by the previous contemporary world and creates completely new ones.”
The review rambles on in this manner for a page and a half before getting to the point. The two Akademies opened with the Consecration of the House Overture in a very impressive way. The violins moved brilliantly, and the basses were not just accompaniment, but truly singing, and the bubbling imagination of Beethoven emerges with a new creative power in a variety of figures. The article praises his mastery of instrumentation, alternating the winds and strings to increase the impressions on the listener. The entrance of the trumpets that opens the piece betrays its origins as being used to inaugurate a new theater.
The instrumental players under Schuppanzigh are praised as executing the piece with energetic fire, arousing the joyful enthusiasm of all the listeners. From an acoustic point of view, the Redoutensaal because of its size is to be preferred for this piece, so that the sounds can expand and fill the large spaces. The effect in the Kärntnertor Theater was quite the opposite, because the great mass of sound ended up in the open vaults, reducing the power of so many instruments resounding at once. The resonance naturally caused some of the figures to be lost and unclear.
This became very clear in the symphony. The first Allegro in D minor provided the instruments an opportunity for moments of brilliant effectiveness. “Like a fire-breathing mountain, Beethoven’s powerful imagination explodes the earth that inhibits the raging of his inner flame.” While some of the figures might have seemed bizarre at first hearing, the skillful hand of the Master transformed them into a stream of graceful turns that never ends and swings step by step to ever more brilliant heights. Amidst the wonderful turmoil, he “transforms the entire mass of his figures into a transfiguring blue fire.”
There are some quite unexpected coups of modulation in these great works, through which the color tone becomes suddenly so gracefully transformed that you involuntarily interrupt your quiet admiration and must give the room a loud “Bravo!” The beautifully tasteful, but almost continuous use of wind instruments, characterized by a color of blissful melancholy, is often utilized after the moments of the greatest storminess of life as a means “to soothe the overly excited soul again, and lull it into blissful dreams, from which only new horrific figures will awaken it.”
Thus the Master’s inflamed genius races on inexorably into the Scherzo. “It seems to us that the troubled mind almost needs to follow this mighty Allegro with the gentle, songful Adagio, melting in melancholy rapture, and to save the Scherzo for later.” In that Scherzo, one finds the quintessence of Beethoven’s humor in all its degrees and strengths. Who would ask whether the pace is furious? There is barely a sense of barlines. The rapid flight of the figures in colorful, humorous alteration gives whimsical shape to the changing world of harmony. The unusual use of the timpani, which announces the humorous style right from the start – does it give the listener any idea of what to expect? The ongoing, ever-tripping theme that runs through it with pointed delivery shows the wonderful, naive mood Beethoven’s mind was in when he wrote it.
The article is continued in a later issue. At 152, the editor’s note states, “This issue presents as an insert the portrait of Herrn Ludwig van Beethoven, which was drawn a few days after the performance of his great academy in May 1824, and therefore can certainly be regarded as the must-have picture of this great artist.” The Vienna AMZ was printed by the Lithographic Institute, which was also issuing the lithograph of Beethoven from the Decker portrait, as seen here.
Today’s Wiener Zeitung, Nr.129 at 544 includes an announcement of the eleventh in the series of piano solo versions of Rossini’s Complete Operas, La Donna del Lago (Das Fräulein vom See,) arranged by Maximilian J. Leidesdorf, for the price of 10 florins (6 florins W.W. to subscribers). The subscription to this series is still open, and is available from all book, music and art stores in Germany, as well as the publishers. The firm thumbs its nose at the Artaria company’s claims to exclusive rights to certain of Rossini’s operas, stating, “The continuation of this collection, which was received with great sympathy and applause, will continue with all diligence and without interruption.” Those who still want to subscribe may receive the Prospectus free of charge.