BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, September 17, 1825

Uncle Ludwig is annoyed that Karl seems to be buying the carriage driver breakfast. Karl denies it, and says he is not getting the carriage driver used to the idea of them buying him breakfast. With customs and tip the coach comes to 12 florins anyway. [This probably relates to the carriage hired on September 15th.]

Karl says Sir George Smart wanted to know why Uncle Ludwig hadn’t already come to England. “He said that the Philharmonic Society’s 300 pounds shouldn’t be regarded as the primary consideration. For that amount you would only need to appear in their concerts two or three times, and you would make money through [other] concerts. He said that in a short time you could make at least 1,000 pounds, and with that continue your journey.” Uncle Ludwig asks how much 1,000 pounds is worth in florins, and Karl tells him 10,000 florins. Uncle Ludwig wishes he had been able to go. Karl says he really should go; 1,000 pounds and even more would be earned easily. Also, he can make better business deals with the publishers there than the ones here. Smart says that Beethoven would find 1,000 friends there, who would do everything they could to support him.

Uncle Ludwig asks what kind of fish Smart would have preferred yesterday. Karl says ocean fish. Uncle Ludwig asks where Smart would get ocean fish in London, and Karl says they can be fished from the Thames River. Karl suggests they go for a walk later.

Uncle Ludwig thinks they need to make a trip to Vienna soon. Karl tells him they can go the day after tomorrow [Monday, September 19.]

Karl mentions that Holz wants to try to play the first violin part in the op.132 quartet, because Schuppanzigh is not here. Ludwig asks where he is; Karl says in Pressburg. The whole Hofkapelle, including Joseph Böhm and Joseph Mayseder went. [On September 25, the Empress of Austria is to be coronated Queen of Hungary there, and musical entertainment will be required.] Schuppanzigh was disappointed in not getting the Hofkapelle violinist position when it opened up in 1823; Leopold Jansa got the position and Schuppanzigh got the secondary Expectant position. But they get allowances of 8 florins C.M. per day; the allowances for the whole Court personnel come to 100,000 florins. The Empress gets a gift of 80,000 ducats [360,000 florins.]

Mid-day dinner is mutton, they have 1 3/4 pounds of it. Holz is expected to come on Tuesday, September 20th.

Conversation Book 97, 24v-27r.

Sir George Smart, back in Vienna after visiting Beethoven yesterday, makes arrangements with the English ambassador to have his passport signed in preparation for his departure. Smart goes with Joseph Ries in the morning to get places in the Eil-wagen [express carriage] for departure on Tuesday, September 20, but all the spots are already taken, so they will need to make other arrangements. He visits the Sauer & Leidesdorf music shop, and buys some prints of places in Vienna, speaking English with Leidesdorf.

In the evening after seven, Smart attends a quartet concert at the home of Mr. Kirchoffer, a friend of Joseph Ries. Kirchoffer also speaks English, having been in London and Liverpool. “The music was played by amateurs, with the exception of the leader, a young man, a Mr. Feigerl, who is in the conservatoire, and has been taught the violin by Boehm. [Peregrin Feigerl (1803-1877), who later wrote a series of well-regarded violin etudes that are still used for instruction today.] They played a quartette by Mozart, dedicated to Haydn. A song of Beethoven’s, imitating a quail [Der Wachtelschlag, or The Call of the Quail, WoO 129], was sung by a tall gentleman who afterwards played on the ‘cello. An air with variations, by B. Romberg, and the first movement of Ries’ pianoforte and variations, by Mr. Feigerl, on the violin, which is dedicated to Paganini, formed the concert, except that I accompanied ‘Adelaide,’ and sang in two English glees, ‘Return blest day,’ and ‘Thy voice, O Harmony.‘ They seemed to admire these and some subjects from Handel.”

“Mr. Kirchoffer gave me two cups of something to cure my throat, I could not stay to supper being so unwell. I got home about ten o’clock.”

Cox and Cox, Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart, 125-126.