BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, September 24, 1825

Nephew Karl, having spent the night with Uncle Ludwig in Baden, takes the early morning carriage to Vienna in order to meet with Baron Eskeles.

Karl returns in the afternoon. There is a discrepancy in the number of bottles of wine on hand. 32 were received yesterday, and the housekeeper says they carried only 28 downstairs but there are 26. Karl counted them himself yesterday. He asks whether Uncle Ludwig has put aside two bottles. [He may suspect his uncle is drinking them secretly.]

The interview with Baron Eskeles went well. The bookkeeper gets a great deal for salary. The correspondent, only in the German language, at Eskeles’s gets 1,500 fl. C.M. The merchant creates his own pension. He does not belong to the highest class.

Uncle Ludwig says that once Karl can be independent, he can release the guardianship. Karl says, “I do not wish to be released from your guardianship for as long as you live.” [He would be released in any event when Karl turns 24, but he has only just turned 19 so there are still five years to go.]

They continue to have problems with mice; Karl suggests that a cat would be better than anything else.

Uncle Ludwig appears to suggest that composers should get a fixed pension. Karl is unsure about that; then one would never get paid for a thing. “In this way no composer would again be paid for a quartet, understood if the ducat stays at its current value.” What did Mozart get? 20-30?

Karl lets his uncle know that the first quartet, op.127, will be performed on Monday September 26 at the farewell banquet Schlesinger is throwing. Karl Holz will play the first violin, and Léon de St. Lubin of the Josephstadt Theater will play the second violin. Schlesinger is going to go to Pressburg today.

“As we left Eskeles’s yesterday, Schlesinger asked me whether I really wanted to be employed in an exchange office. I said that I would also gladly be employed in a wholesale office/bank where, in many respects, it is even better because there one can attain independence earlier. He said that that was quite true; people in a comptoir [office] are always subordinate to a certain extent, because it requires enormous sums to establish one’s own exchange office.”

“Then he said that he did not understand why I would not become an art [music] dealer, not here, but in London, where, with the enthusiasm of the Englishmen, I could not fail to become the foremost art dealer. I told him the truth and said that you have always shown a great disinclination to such a plan, which your Brother at one time proposed, and there was no further discussion about it.”

“To that, he said: ‘If your uncle could give his permission for such a thing, and if you [Karl] were not disinclined to it, it would give me great pleasure (after the necessary time passed) to take you to Paris, where, at my place, you would easily acquire all the necessary knowledge and, as a result, could very soon establish yourself, since only a small sum of money would be required.”

“I am telling you this,” Karl adds, “only so you can see how everyone takes pleasure—for your sake—to do everything possible for me. It especially struck me that a publisher made this proposal to me, since his business could be diminished as a result. But Schlesinger is already worth over 1 million, therefore that is not so remarkable.”

Uncle Ludwig thinks the banking house would be a more certain way to advance. “For everyone else, it would perhaps be better, but with your name there is no doubt that could have a good advantage as a publisher. In London, certainly.”

Beethoven appears to make a dismissive remark to the effect that being a publisher is not a suitable profession for a gentleman. “Don’t you consider Schlesinger to be a gentleman?” Uncle Ludwig is getting annoyed at Schlesinger inserting himself into Karl’s education. “There is also no discussion about that, but it is certain that Schlesinger means it very well, because I could acquire all the mercantile knowledge in a short time at his place. And become proficient in the French and English languages.”

Uncle Ludwig starts to play his cards from having Holz observe Karl, and comments about Karl having been seen spending too much time at the Burg Theater. Karl is furious. “I am not a little child whom you can deceive by such so-called white lies; because no-one can have told you that someone had seen me there, because I was never there, except with yourself.”

Uncle Ludwig tries to justify himself, that Karl should spend his time with scholars and artists. Karl retorts, “A businessman deals with scholars and artists.”

The subject changes to the concert before the dinner on Monday, and they think it is likely to be too long. Karl would just as soon they played nothing; even nothing would be too long. It would be a pity for every note. [Perhaps they are considering abridgement, or only playing selected movements.] “I am happy to hear the first [quartet] again, but it doesn’t seem right to me that Holz will play the first violin part.” But Holz assured Karl that they will play it well.

Karl points out, “As it stands, this occupation has been chosen for me, and now I don’t understand why your works should make only the other publishers rich; you will see how the Englishmen do business.” Uncle Ludwig does not appear to have a good answer for this retort.

Ludwig asks why Schlesinger is suddenly going to Pressburg. Karl explain, “Tomorrow is the Coronation in Pressburg.” [Empress Carolina Augusta is to be crowned Queen of Hungary, a major social event.] Schlesinger is journeying there through the night. Uncle Ludwig asks how long a trip that would be. “Six hours! The express coach must be there in 6 hours.”

Karl quotes an advertisement he saw in the Wiener Zeitung for the collected writings of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, recently edited by Ignaz von Seyfried. Karl mentions, “it says that Albrechtsberger’s students were L.v.B., Eybler, Umlauf, etc. Ludwig asks what this was in reference to. Karl says Albrechtsberger’s writings for self-instruction are being published now.

For dinner, housekeeper Barbara Holzmann wants to make little baked dumplings. For evening dinner, Ludwig has his choice of pork loin or smoked tongue. The pork is a special cut called a gammon steak; they have often had it at other places.

Conversation Book 97, 45r-50r.