BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, October 2, 1824

Johann Andreas Stumpff probably makes his second visit to Beethoven in Baden today, having been invited to mid-day dinner three days ago. He fills Beethoven in somewhat about his background. Stumpff says he was born in Saxony, but went to London 32 years ago to establish himself in business there. He worked under Broadwood, who made Beethoven’s prized piano, but now works as a harp maker; he thinks of himself as the best such in London. But, he says, one can never say that one has financial security, since one can become poor in the twinkling of an eye because the great lords seldom pay.

Beethoven asks about the possibilities of making money touring England. One would need to, as Rossini did, have everything arranged before hand, and not try to make the tour at random. But a person who can give lessons, like pianists Friedrich Kalkbrenner and Ignaz Moscheles, is sure to be rich in a few years. They can also earn money by performing. [Beethoven certainly would have considered giving lessons beneath him at this stage of his career, and performing publicly in his increasingly deaf state would have been highly risky, so these were not realistic possibilities.]

Beethoven asks whether his old pupil Ferdinand Ries is still in England; he thought he saw something that he had moved back to Bonn. [Ries’ move was reported in the September 9, 1824 Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.] Stumpff agrees that yes, Ries has moved back to Bonn.

Talk of England sets Beethoven off complaining about the former prince regent, now King George IV, who did not compensate him for the dedication of one of Beethoven’s most popular works, Wellington’s Victory, op.91. Stumpff laughs, “The King doesn’t give anybody anything.” The King lives on his salary of 80,000 pounds per year. Frankly, Stumpff considers that a fairly small amount, considering the high cost of living. That amounts to about 200,000 florins W.W.

They could send for wine, but the proprietor won’t lend his name to it. Every bottle has the name of Fries, Vöslau, etc. [Banker Moritz Fries owned a vineyard in Vöslau, about 5 miles from Baden, editor Albrecht points out.]

Conversation Book 76, 9v-10v.

Stumpff also left his own lengthy account of this dinner with Beethoven. “So I appeared at his apartment at the lunchtime he had appointed. I must allow myself to discuss a circumstance which would, if not justify, then at least excuse a somewhat hasty action during the midday meal!”

“Beethoven had repeatedly ordered his housekeeper to put everything that was ordered for lunch on the table, and absolutely nothing should be brought after he had sat down. Whether such an order was usual, fair or unfair is not the issue here; in short, it was an order!”

“So the strangest wish I had cherished for so long in life was finally fulfilled. Now I was within the walls which enclosed the giant of music. I was in the room where he put his intellectual works on paper, I sat next to him, invited by him, at his table to enjoy a lunch which he had had prepared for me. Wonderful! Yes! –! The memory of such a desired, so feared event still makes my blood boil (as I write this)! A person like me, with a stupid, shy and unassuming nature, who, even in the summer of my life, after so many frictions in the maelstrom of life, was often attacked by it, could approach without fear, even with confidence, a character like Beethoven, whose intellectual works could elevate and amaze the most educated in music of all nations, from the palace to the breasts of the humble, receptive to the great and the beautiful? What could bring this miracle about? Was it sympathy? Was it spiritual harmony? What spirit can unravel their threads? But that’s how it was!”

“It was a good genius ruling over me that let me see a real man, whom I had sought for so long and had not found, a man who had been pursued by the insults of fortune and who could only acquire some compensation with the weapons of the mind, in order to cheer me up by his example, to endure a similar persecution without complaint. Now I was sitting all alone with Beethoven, at his well-stocked table. Two tall, old-fashioned bottles full of reddish wine stood on either side of him, and a smaller bottle also shone on his left, to glorify the dessert!”

‘What you will find here are simple dishes, not poisoned by the cook, so mine is also unadulterated and natural. – Now take hold and eat and drink what God has provided.'”

“I followed his example and did not let myself be found slacking. The wine, which was pure and good, revived the spirits of my host, who always filled and emptied the two glasses with great ease, and always pushed the first one to his guest, and as he kept talking, witty and funny ideas came to light, which often made him laugh out loud, and I applauded them with clapping hands. In one such outpouring, his grumpy housekeeper crept in through the door and put a bowl of noodles on the table, thinking she would not be noticed, when suddenly Beethoven cried out loudly to her, ‘You rebellious woman, who told you to do what is forbidden?’ – He pushed the bowl of smoking noodles towards her, which she caught in her apron – the old woman, who knew her master, moved away as quickly as possible and, growling loudly, disappeared.”

“Now Beethoven reached out for the small bottle. It was filled with delicious Tokay wine and he filled the two glasses to the brim. ‘Now, my good German Englishman, to your precious health.’ We first emptied the glasses, [then] I held out my hand – ‘Good luck on your journey and see you again in London!’ – Then I indicated to him to fill the glasses again and wrote hastily on his paper – ‘Now it’s to the health of the greatest living composer, Beethoven’ – I rose from my seat, he followed my example, emptied his glass and, taking my hand – [said] – ‘And how I am today, completely what I am and should be, completely unbuttoned.’ Then he poured out his words about music and how it is nowadays degraded and was merely a game of low and impudent passion. – ‘True music’ – he said, ‘finds little entrance in this Rossini (and consort) age.’ – Then I took the lead pen and wrote with very clear letters –”

“‘Who do you consider to be the greatest composer who ever lived?'”

“‘Handel,’ was his immediate answer, ‘to him I bend my knee’ – and touched the ground with one knee.”

“‘Mozart,’ I wrote.”

“‘Mozart,’ he continued, ‘is good and excellent.'”

“‘Yes,’ I wrote, ‘who could even glorify Handel with a newer accompaniment in Messiah.'” [Mozart in 1789 had produced an updated orchestration of Handel’s oratorio, catalogued as K.572]

“‘He would have survived without that,’ was his answer.”

“Now I wrote. ‘Seb. Bach.'”

“‘Why is he dead?'”

“I wrote immediately, ‘he will live again.'”

“‘Yes, if one studies him, and one does not have time for that!'”

“I then took the liberty of writing: ‘Since you exalt the merits of Handel, himself an unattainable artist in divine art, so highly and above all else, you will surely possess the scores of his major works?'”

“‘I, poor devil, how could I have come to this! Yes, the scores of his Messiah and Alexander’s Feast have passed through my hands.'”

“If a blind man could assist a lame man and thus achieve together what was not possible for anyone individually, why should not a similar result be expected from a similar alliance in the present case? – At that moment I made a mental vow: ‘Beethoven, you shall find the works of Handel that your spirit has longed for.'”

Stumpff adds that when he left London he had deposited a large sum in a local bank, but that he had lost it when the bank went bankrupt, as a result of the deceptions of key figures in the house. He had already heard about this in Vienna, and when he told Beethoven, the latter said: “So there are scoundrels in London too! Though this prank must annoy, it will not depress my philosophical friend.”

“The discussion was now about piano instruments and compositions for them. Beethoven complained about the imperfection of the grand piano, on which, in its current state, one could not play anything with power and effect!”

“‘I myself have a London instrument [the Broadwood], but it does not do what one would expect from it: come here, it is in the next room, in a most miserable state.'”

“When I opened it, what a sight met my eyes! The upper part was toneless and the torn strings were tangled up in one another, like a thorn bush scourged by a storm wind!”

Stumpff apparently has begged Beethoven play the piano for him. But the Broadwood in its current state would not do. “An unsatisfied wish grew ever stronger in my soul, namely to hear Beethoven play, and in the state his piano was, it was impossible.” [Beethoven will give Stumpff the opportunity he needs tomorrow morning.]

“Beethoven asked me to advise him what to do with the piano. ‘If you consult with him, could the piano maker Stein be able to put it back into good condition?'”

“I promised to comply with his wishes. – His brother [Johann], a country estate owner, had just entered. He had heard of me and seemed happy to see me here because he had a lot to talk about with me. He asked me very flatteringly to visit him. As it was now evening, I said goodbye to Beethoven and he accompanied me to the front door. He now seemed quite upset. He said with a clouded face: ‘This is my brother – have nothing to do with him. He is not an honest man. You will hear from me many bad deeds of which he is guilty. Farewell!'”

“That was the brother to whom Beethoven had to pawn his compositions when he was in dire financial straits! And who once proudly signed himself in a letter as ‘landowner’, to which the tone poet signed himself ‘brain-owner’ in his reply.”

TDR V, 125-128. Beethoven appears to mention to Stumpff that he plans to take care of business with Brother Johann for several days tomorrow.