BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, October 15, 1824

Ludwig and Nephew Karl are still in Baden. They apparently get quite a few pieces of mail with information that Karl passes on to his uncle. The new apartment in the Johannesgasse isn’t quite ready, since some masonry work needs to be done. The weather is warm so there won’t be any delay.

The pair go for a very long walk today, and Karl is quite chatty, relating the plots of several plays he has seen.

Piano maker Johann Andreas Streicher spoke to Franz Lachner about doing the piano reduction of the Missa Solemnis. He’s quite willing to do it, and asks that the score be sent to him in the next few days. Soon his lessons will be so frequent he won’t have time to do it. The piano score won’t cost Ludwig a cent, Streicher promises, and it must be made now. And if the choral societies do reply, it would be good if they did not have to wait long. Streicher believes that at least 3 will take the piano score. [In the end, none of them buy the piano reduction, probably because the 50-ducat asking price is too high for amateur organizations.]

Tomorrow Johann’s brother-in-law Leopold Obermeyer will be going to see Johann in Gneixendorf. If Ludwig has a letter to take along, Obermeyer might be able to take it, Karl suggests. Karl thinks the whole clan of them isn’t worth a shot of powder. They will soon have mismanaged everything, and Johann says so himself. He won’t come to see them, unless a misfortune happens to him. Karl is confident Johann is still in love with his unfaithful wife Theresa. That’s the reason for everything.

At the Baden Theater is a play called The Sentry at the Powder Tower by Court Actor Johan Anton Reil (1773-1843). [The play had premiered at the Theater an der Wien in March.] The plot according to Karl is the son of an old farmer wants to marry an orphan the old man raised. A rake also has designs on her. Therefore, he comes and asks the old man for her. Of course, he, in turn refuses him. Out of revenge, the rake ties sulfur and fuse to the wing of a pigeon and throws it into the Powder Tower where the old man’s son is standing watch. Fortunately, he is standing in the sentry’s box and remains uninjured. The arsonist is punished.

Karl observes that the actors at the Baden theater act better than one might presume from the efforts they put into it and how limited is their pay.

Today someone wanted to ride the scheduled coach to Vienna but thought the 1 florin charge was too much, so he walked instead. Karl notices his uncle dozing off a bit.

Stumpff has lost something Beethoven gave him. Since he had to sit in the coachman’s seat, that could have been how it happened. Karl asks whether his uncle wants to send him another one. It needs to be done soon, though, since Stumpff is leaving the City next week. [This probably is the lithograph portrait, likely based on the Stieler portrait, Beethoven gave him on his departure from Baden. That is the only gift mentioned in Stumpff’s lengthy narrative.]

There are no crabs available in the marketplace for less than 7 kreutzers. So the housekeeper bought a carp instead. For the evening meal, there are two doves for baking, since there were no pikes to be had at all. Mid-day dinner is bread soup, meat with sorrel, white turnips with little fishes, carp in black sauce.

Uncle Ludwig had his heart set on the crabs. Were they not good? Karl says they were all dead, and they wanted 7 kreutzers for them. The cook fried the organs of the carp in butter. She thought that lard would have been better than butter, since it doesn’t smoke as much and doesn’t leave as much fat, so one needs far less. She is going to try to convince them of that today.

Karl observes that “it is astonishing how strong people are among the classes of porters, sedan-chair carriers, or in general among those who make their living solely by the strength of their bodies. One of the porters that Stein sent [to move the piano] was really a half-Theseus.”

The surest way to get a maid is to advertise in the Wiener Zeitung. Although the maid claims she is seeking a post as a governess, Karl doesn’t believe her. She ordered a small box at the carpenters, to put the turnspit in, since it is so corroded.

Karl thinks they should lay in a small stock of grapes from the enormous quantity the maid bought yesterday. They can hang them in the windows on cords and let them dry. Then they will be good for the whole winter.

A transport of oil was not expected until today, but it probably has arrived by now. A bottle costs 1 florin 6 kreutzers.

After dinner, Karl suggests giving the maid the laundry now, since it has to be soaked. She can’t do it tomorrow, and can’t get someone else to come in to do it. Karl pushes again to give her the laundry today.

Karl asks whether his uncle has read the review in the Musikalische Zeitung of a local singspiel by Albin Pfaller, Honorary Citizen of Vienna? It says in it that Beethoven is also an honorary citizen, and that it’s the only similarity between the two. The review calls Beethoven a Mont Blanc, and Pfaller a hill, or Beethoven a cathedral and Pfaller a little village church. Pfaller wrote the music and libretto himself.

Karl relates the plot of the Singspiel: “An old man, a colonel, is languishing in prison, and has been brought to ruin by his enemies, since he had a criminal shot. After the death of the Prince who judged him, his stepson succeeded in revealing his innocence to the authorities. He comes into his daughter’s house and is glad to end his life in her arms, when he suddenly learns that his daughter’s husband is the son of the criminal whom he had judged, and also helped bring him down. He forgave him, but the laws required his death. Since the wife threw herself at the feet of the Prince, he received mercy.

Karl forgot that he ran into the coppersmith’s wife yesterday. [Beethoven had stayed at the coppersmith’s house in Baden the year before.] She asked whether they were still in Baden. He said yes, and added, she would also have been able to make a profit from them if she had not quoted such a high price. She seemed to realize that, and said that if she had known they were going to stay so long, she would have made the price quoted more reasonable.

They need Vöslau wine, but there’s always plenty and it doesn’t need to be reserved. Ludwig asks how much that is per bottle. Karl says 48 kreutzers.

There is some shopping to be done at the market in the City. They need soap powder, noodles or rice with veal, meat with tomatoes, spinach with bratwursts, chicken, and poultry for the evening meals.

Uncle Ludwig has walked a great deal today, more than Karl thinks is good for him. Walking out to Vöslau also is too much; Karl thinks they should take a carriage and ride instead. If Johann had stayed in Baden longer with his horses, that would have been better for Uncle Ludwig’s health.

Ludwig is not keen on the idea of the baked doves for dinner this evening. Karl thinks they should have it, since it would be very fresh. Overnight it would be a little less so.

The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung has an article that deals harshly with Steiner & Co. Among other things, they complain about pirated reprinting, which they themselves engaged in. [The Intelligenzblatt Nr.7 supplement to the Leipzig AMZ Nr.343 of August 12, 1824 contains an announcement related to an easy piano score of Weber’s opera Euryanthe, printed by Herder in Freiburg. Steiner issued a warning against this edition. The Announcement responds that the “Warning” is already refuted. It is an altered version of the work and not a pirated reprint. But the hypocritical Steiner advertised a new edition of the Knecht Allgemeiner musikalischer Katechismus, of which Herder was the original publisher. Karl clearly read this issue of the AMZ recently and quite thoroughly as he mentions various stories in it several times today.]

The housekeeper, Barbara Holzmann, is a bit embarrassed today, Karl says. “I believe that we ought to be happy to get rid of her in such a kind way.” [Possibly letting her leave of absence from the St. Marx Spital lapse.]

Karl relates yet another theatrical plot: “The old man, a rich man, has two nephews, of which the elder, in the manner of Franz Moor, wrongfully accuses the younger, and takes from him all ways to defend himself, and indeed carries it so far that the uncle leaves him without support and decides to disinherit him. The outcast marries a peasant girl and works the fields, while the elder marries a rich maid. But as the brothers differ in character, so do their wives. The peasant girl is virtuous and gentle; the other one is proud and greedy, etc. A family friend who knows the brothers better than the uncle tells him to fake his own death. The brothers come for the opening of the Testament. He becomes acquainted with them and their wives in the guise of the Testament’s executor, tears up the pro forma Testament in which the villain had been designated the heir, and gives his love to the misunderstood one. Tomorrow is the last performance.

Karl asks whether his uncle wants a foot bath today after all of his walking.

Karl notes that the postal official’s wife was the only one there yesterday. She gave the receipt and asked for 3 kreutzers. But she later sent word she had made a mistake and the fee was 6 kreutzers. So she sent another receipt for 6 kreutzers. [This fee might be related to the conjectural letter received yesterday from Stumpff.]

Since Ludwig and Karl have stayed at Schloss Gutenbrunn beyond October 7 or 8, for which they paid 40 florins, they will probably need to pay per day for the time beyond that.

Uncle Ludwig brings up Gottfried Leibniz as the discoverer of calculus. Karl correctly says it’s a matter of dispute as to whether Leibniz or Isaac Newton came up with it first.

Uncle Ludwig hopes there will be chestnuts soon. Karl says there are already chestnuts in Vienna; he had some recently.

Ludwig talks about trumpets. Karl mentions, “In connection with your trumpets, it occurs to me that in the musikalische Zeitung there is an article by a trumpeter who plays his instrument in a way never heard before. [Joseph Tomaschka, who played on the keyed trumpet, also described in the August 12 Leipzig AMZ at 537.] He gives concerts. Madame Angelica Catalani [(c.1780-1849), a celebrated Italian singer] has already lived past her reputation.

Uncle Ludwig worries whether people will be able to see in the windows of their new apartment in the Johannesgasse. Karl thinks not, after all they are on the fourth floor [fifth floor American] and right in front of them is the clock in the tower of the Capuchin Church, which is very convenient. [Karl is mistaken. The Capuchin church has no tower and no clock; he may be confusing it with the tower of the Augustine Church visible behind it. A photo of the Capuchin church, showing the Augustinian tower visible behind it is included courtesy of our friend and regular contributor Birthe Kibsgaard.]

Conversation Book 77, 11r-22v.

The November 24 Berliner Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.47) at 405-407 includes an account of a concert held today in Berlin by a husband and wife duo from St. Petersburg, Karl and Henriette Arnold, who have a good reputation. While the reviewer praised his piano playing, and Frau Arnold’s singing, the crowning glory of the evening was a new symphony by 15-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi [sic], in an early version.

Adolph Bernhard Marx writes that the symphony “gives rise to the greatest hopes for this promising artist.” While originality was found to be lacking in his earlier piano quartet, op.1, published in 1823, that originality comes to light here, with a searing fire streaming out of the first movement of the first Allegro. “The whole thing weaves along splendidly until it stops; the brilliant pause becomes even more expressive through the deep-sounding and resting French horns. And now the movement storms to the real end in the manner of a Beethovenian coda. Judging from this single performance, it seemed to the editor as if the composer had been too lavish with the orchestra’s tutti and especially the timpani. But it is truly a powerful pleasure and a strong temptation to master these powerful instruments of sound. One must be wise and economical in a difficult battle with one’s self. Furthermore, the editor felt that the main movement was not sufficiently broad in proportion to its unbridled power. Had the composer’s spirit of contemplation prompted him to lift his pen too early?”

“The Adagio or Andante that followed, after its solemn beginning, seemed to lose itself in the midst of overly soft, almost too sweet melodies, especially for the flute. Although it contains many beauties, it was pushed out of the editor’s memory by the brilliant Scherzo. The wild mood of that Scherzo, which reached an almost devastating level, was softened in the beautiful six-minute melancholy Trio.”

Marx concluded, “How delightful it is for a friend of art to greet an artist – one of the rare ones who have received the proper consecration.” Mendelssohn will take Marx’s criticisms to heart; when the editor next hears the revised symphony about a year from now, almost all of his objections will have been met.