BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, September 18, 1824

Beethoven is still in Vienna. At his apartment he makes an errand/shopping list:

+Clock key.
+Matches.
+Spectacles.
+Glass from the engraver.
No.6, Rospini [Karl Joseph Rospini was an Imperial Court optician, amongst other activities. Nephew Karl will later take his uncle’s eyeglasses for repair, and may take them to Rospini.]

Karl adds to the list Zwieback bread.

They then go out to hunt for apartments again. At one place, the responsible person is not home yet, and then will be going out immediately for dinner. However, he will be in Baden tomorrow, in the Rathhausgasse, so Beethoven can find him there, if he likes.

They stop to read the newspapers, in particular the apartment advertisements. They check out one for Haarhof No.275, on the 3rd floor [4th floor American] with 4 rooms. It can only be seen between 12 and 1 p.m. [The advertisement in today’s Intelligenzblatt Nr.215 at 342 mentions that the largest room has a view of the Naglergasse, and includes a kitchen, basement and wood storage.] They visit the building, and learn the rent is 600 florins C.M., or 1500 florins W.W. It can be had for half that, if only 6 months is desired. But they missed the one-hour window and the building superintendent is not there now. The woman who is still there doesn’t have the key. Karl advises against doing anything without actually seeing the apartment. The superintendent won’t be there on Sunday, nor on Monday since it’s a holy day.

Another apartment they look at has five rooms, with a view into the courtyard and a garden. It’s on the third floor [fourth floor American.]

Karl mentions that he went back to the apartment in the Johannesgasse and told them Uncle Ludwig would not take it at 550 florins. So the landlady said she would give it to him for 500 florins. [That is the apartment that Beethoven will rent in November of 1824.]

Karl asks his uncle whether he remembers the baptized Jew who once recommended a house for Uncle Ludwig to buy? “He was always very courteous to you then, but when he saw that nothing would come of it, he also didn’t greet you any more.”

The pair return to Ludwig’s apartment, where they learn that the maid, who has been in the hospital for about a week, is finally getting up and around. She yearns to go home, since she believes that she will recover far sooner under her mother’s care. Karl thinks it is regrettable that there are so few people willing to be domestic servants here.

The housekeeper, Barbara Holzmann, says that “The gentleman is here concerning the money.” Beethoven writes a cryptic note, “Because he must be ashamed to appear before S with such a thing.” [Schindler? If so, this may be related to the still unpaid bills for the May Akademie concerts.]

Nephew Karl visits the Streichers and has dinner with them. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten food poisoning while there and was quite ill. “I couldn’t leave, because I wasn’t certain for a moment that I could relax my hold on my bowels. The toilet is almost full. And I couldn’t refuse the offer, since they could have taken it badly, and had always been well-disposed to me.”

Housekeeper Holzmann says the meat in the restaurant is better than theirs because restaurants buy it in quantity. Her son is living in Siebenhirten, a village about 8 miles southwest of Vienna. He is quite healthy there. She fears that she won’t be able to get any more leave from the poorhouse for the elderly any more.

Karl will go to see composer Anton Halm tomorrow. [Editor Theodore Albrecht notes that Karl previously said his piano lessons with Halm were on Saturdays, but he may have missed today’s lesson with his illness. But Karl may be referring to the possibility of Halm doing the piano arrangements for the Missa Solemnis or the Ninth Symphony] The third one [probably a reference to composer Franz Lachner, who along with Carl Czerny was also under consideration for these tasks] always comes to young Streicher’s piano shop, so Karl will see him there.

Holzmann has stuffed the brisket for the evening meal. Karl reminds his uncle that they need to get their free admission to the theaters in Baden validated again.

After eating, Uncle Ludwig and Holzmann return to Baden. Karl goes with them and then returns within a day or two to run errands for his uncle, such as discussing the piano arrangements.

Conversation Book 75, 31v-35v. Conversation Book entries resume on September 23, when Karl goes back to Baden.