BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, May 21, 1825

Beethoven takes the carriage into Vienna from Baden bei Wien along with housekeeper Barbara Holzmann early this morning to go apartment hunting with Karl. They arrive at Nephew Karl’s apartment in suburban Wieden, Alleegasse 72 around 9 a.m. or a little later. Uncle Ludwig tells Karl they need to pick up some of that Bohemian red wine that the Black Camel advertised was available for 1 fl. 15 kr. per bottle. Karl tells him that the coachman can go with Holzmann to pick it up right now. He just needs to instruct her exactly what kind of wine she is supposed to get there. The plan is also to have her go to Ferdinand Piringer and pick up the proofread copy of the Missa Solemnis for Prince Radziwill, if Piringer has completed the work.

Ludwig would like Nephew Karl to return to Baden with him this evening. But Karl says he can’t do that as he has too much homework. “It is absolutely impossible to be completely finished today if I still have to accomplish several things with you. Therefore, I’ll take several things with me because we’re so very swamped, and on Saturday must write everything that has carried forward the whole week.”

Uncle Ludwig entreats him to come along; he can bring his homework and do it in Baden. Karl resists. “It would obviously be very nice for me if I drove out there with you yet today, only it is almost impossible to do very much out there because it is too inconvenient to take along all the books and papers that I need; and since I must also go along with you for matters concerning the apartment, there is too little time that remains to me. Therefore I believe that I should meet you somewhere at about 12 o’clock and see about the apartment and run various errands, and to eat with you, but not to go out there until tomorrow, so that I have the evening, when I can do the most, to myself; because you cannot believe how much there is to write, and to study in order to satisfy the wishes of the professors, and especially Reisser who, in any case, observes me very closely.”

“Then on the morning of the day after tomorrow [Monday], I can come back here after being the whole day with you tomorrow.”

Uncle Ludwig thought that the work at the Polytechnic would not be so arduous as it had been at the University. “The work doesn’t go as quickly as one might believe,” Karl answers. “There are too many subjects, all of which have to be studied and understood well. [To make matters worse, Karl is still catching up from joining the Polytechnic mid-semester.] I am spending 5 hours per day in lectures and even 6 hours per day twice a week. At the end of every day nothing else can be done other than review each subject and prepare the work for the following day. Yesterday, there were 6 different subjects for which I would have had enough to do in the evening. Saturday is designated for those things that one can discern only from the lectures and to write out the lecture notes in clean copy, and that goes very slowly.”

“Today I first considered History, insofar as it influenced business matters. I worked on it diligently, which I wrote out in the time that I was now alone, so that you see how slowly it goes, because I must have the maps and a Geography textbook at hand, and look up and review everything by locality.” Uncle Ludwig asks Karl whether he finds the work interesting. “The subjects that I have here are very interesting to me. Most of the professors are also very skilled. For example, Dr. [Ignaz] Sonnleithner teaches Business and Exchange law, and he pays great attention to me, because he is well acquainted with you.”

Uncle Ludwig mentions the request of Reisser, the vice-director of the Polytechnic Institute and Karl’s co-guardian, to be able to copy the Missa Solemnis; he is not inclined to let him do so until it has been published by Schott. Karl thinks he should led Reisser copy the Mass. “You can be assured that it would not get into any unauthorized hands, and it is very good that we become associated with this man, because he can do a great deal for us as a result.” Seeing Uncle Ludwig’s resistance, Karl adds, “Reisser reminded me again yesterday, with an aside that your Herr Brother promised it to him as a certainty.” Does he intend to hold a performance of the work? “He didn’t say anything to me about the performance. He wishes to own it only for himself, and that you can be quite sure that no one will get it. It is a greater honor to him, he says, than if you otherwise wanted to give him who-knows-what.” I don’t want to pay for a copy to be made for him, Uncle Ludwig says, weakening. “He will gladly assume the expense,” Karl assures him.

It’s been quite cold in Vienna this week; they had to have heating. [Uncle Ludwig may here voice his suspicions that Karl has been going to visit his mother Johanna.] Karl assures him that he has been so busy that he couldn’t walk that far; also the weather was very bad.

Beethoven spends the rest of the morning running errands with Holzmann. Uncle Ludwig meets back up with Karl again and they go apartment hunting, starting with the one at Ungargasse 345 near the brewery. The rent is 220 florins C.M., or 550 florins W.W. paper money. Karl agrees that it’s suitably large for his uncle’s needs. On the way back to Karl’s, they stop and get an adhesive plaster to treat Uncle Ludwig’s injury [probably his painful corn or his burned hand.]

After they drop Karl off, Uncle Ludwig reads the apartment vacancy advertisements posted in a coffeehouse and makes note of several of interest, the direction they face, and the number of rooms. He will have to visit them on his next trip to Vienna. Beethoven also copies down an advertisement for two summer apartments in Hetzendorf, indicating he is not entirely happy with his current lodgings. [However, he does remain there the entire summer.]

Beethoven and Holzmann then return to Baden in the early evening.

Conversation Book 89, 14r-17v.

Publisher B. Schott’s Sons writes to Beethoven today, in response to his letter of May 7th. The original is not known to survive, but a marking on that letter indicates it is answered today. There are insufficient clues to determine what the content of that letter was, but it may relate to Beethoven’s offer in that letter of several more smaller works, such as the four marches for wind band. If so, Schott probably declines since they are not mentioned again in their correspondence with Beethoven. Brandenburg Letter 1976.