BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, May 20, 1826
Nephew Karl comes to visit his Uncle Ludwig today. The housekeeper tells him the following menu for today:
Soup, veal udder
Beef with chive sauce
{vegetables} Pie with oxtail
Roast: Partridges
Hazel Hen.
For supper, there is rabbit. Uncle Ludwig doesn’t think there is any rabbit in the apartment. The housekeeper says she will get it today. Ludwig would like something other than oxtail [perhaps the rabbit] in the pie.
A prospective housekeeper named Anna Schubel, born 1785, comes to the door. She is a widow, who has one son who does not live with her. She lives at Landstrasse 233 with her sister, the glover’s widow. Her husband was a state civil servant; she managed a large household. She originally comes from Prague, where they cook very well. Everything is cooked with butter. Her son studies at the Benedictine high school in the Schottengasse. After she leaves, Ludwig thinks not, so Karl will let her know.
Karl says they need to look elsewhere for a housekeeper. He has already given commission for a kitchen maid to two fruit-dealer women on the Wieden; they probably can find a housekeeper as well. They know a lot of people, and their influence is huge. Can the departing housekeeper stay on, Ludwig asks? Karl says she already has a new position, where she is to start the same day as she leaves them. Uncle Ludwig asks when her time is up. Tuesday, Karl answers, May 30. She was given notice on last Tuesday [May 16], so 8 days from the day after tomorrow. [This exchange conveniently dates these conversation book entries to today with confidence.] What about the maid? Karl cautions against saying anything to her, if she does not say she is leaving herself, especially since she complained to the housekeeper and said that she would leave. That was the day before yesterday [May 18]; the housekeeper told Karl that the maid was very dissatisfied and that she would hand in her notice as soon as he arrived today.
Uncle Ludwig makes some kind of accusation against Karl, which he denies: “I do not know why you think that; at least I give no cause for that.”
They have dinner, and the pie is terrible. Ludwig suggests that it is the result of an interesting recipe; Karl thinks it is more likely stupidity.`
Uncle Ludwig has second thoughts about Frau Schubel. Karl says, “She looks strange. And we do not know anything about her cooking.” Uncle Ludwig suggests they could give her a cooking trial. Karl tells him he could always try, if he wants to. [Frau Schubel’s potential employment with Beethoven seems to go no further after this.]
Karl probably goes home to do his homework, but he may stay with his uncle. The conversation books are not clear. In any event, Karl is with his uncle again tomorrow.
Conversation Book 110, 34v-37r.
While Nephew Karl is with him, Beethoven dictates a letter to his publisher, B. Schott’s Sons in Mainz:
“Overwhelmed with business and constantly suffering from health problems, I was unable to reply to your esteemed letter of April 6th. Also, the Quartet [op.131], which is now finished, was not yet completed at that time. You can well imagine that I am reluctant to deviate from the fee of 80 ducats, which was offered and paid to me for the two earlier quartets that immediately preceded yours. However, since you have already granted me this fee, I gladly accept your suggestion to have it paid to me in two installments. Therefore, please send me two bills of exchange, one for forty ducats payable a vista [on sight], the other for the same amount, payable after two months. Since you are undoubtedly aware of the misfortune that has befallen the Fries [banking] family, I would prefer it if you would make the bills payable to Arnstein and Eskeles instead.”
“You will receive the metronome markings [for the Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis] in 8 days by post. It is proceeding slowly, as my health requires rest. I have not yet received anything from you about the Quartet in E-flat [op.127], nor about Minerva. [Beethoven probably means Schott’s music magazine Cäcilia.] Once again, I must ask you not to believe that I would sell any work twice. You know yourselves how it was with the Overture. It would have been impossible for me to answer you about the accusation that I had sold your quartet to Schlesinger for a second time, for such a thing would be too far wrongful for me to defend myself against. Such a thing cannot be washed away even by the finest Rhine wines. Liguorian penances, like the ones we have here, must be added.”
“Your most devoted l. v. Beethoven.”
“N.B. I request a prompt reply to this letter.”
Brandenburg Letter 2154; Anderson Letter 1485. A draft of this letter in a private collection includes the additional comment: “It must be enough for them that S[chlesinger] not only did not receive this quartet, but also could not receive it. He wished to have quartets—meanwhile he only gives me…” The quartet op.131 was not in fact finished yet, but will be soon. “The Overture” mentioned is the Consecration of the House Overture, op.124, which appeared in Berlin in an unauthorized arrangement for piano four hands, which Beethoven repudiated. The reference to “Liguorian penances” relates to the severe penances of the Redemptorist sect, formed by Alfonso Maria de Liguori (1696-1782, canonized 1819).
The original of the letter is held in the Mainz City Library (Hs III 71, Nr.19) and can be seen here:
https://www.dilibri.de/dilibri_kalliope/content/titleinfo/2115366