BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, March 25, 1826 (approximately)

Beethoven, annoyed that the Steiner publishing house refuses to correct the title pages to op.114 and op.116, writes an abrupt letter to Steiner and Haslinger about now.

“To the two Tobiases.”

“So long as I don’t see a correction, I won’t believe in it—Remember this.”

“Beethoven.”

Brandenburg Letter 2137 (not in Anderson). The whereabouts of the original are unknown; the text is from Max Unger, Ludwig van Beethoven und seine Verleger S.A. Steiner and Tobias Haslinger in Wien, Ad. Mart. Schlesinger in Berlin, Berlin (1921) p.53, Nr.37. The addressing of Steiner and Haslinger as “Tobiases,” a reference to the apocryphal book of Tobit in the Catholic Bible, was a usage of Beethoven and his circle about this time in the spring of 1826. It probably is not long before Beethoven complains to the censor about their conduct, which occurs around April 6, 1826, thereby forcing the issue.