BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, December 15, 1822

Ferdinand von Piringer, assistant conductor of the Concerts spirituels with Franz Gebauer, today at 11 AM conducts Mozart’s Requiem Mass in honor of Gebauer, who died early Friday morning. Gebauer was fond of Beethoven and made sure to keep the eight symphonies alive in his series of concerts in Vienna, performing them all over the first two seasons. Beethoven was friends with both men, and may have attended the performance out of respect, even if he could hear little of it.

The Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.10 of February 1, 1823 at col. 80 notes that the orchestra for the Requiem numbered over 100 persons strong. “In spite of the extreme cold, which is quite unusual in Vienna, the church was filled with those who dedicated an hour to the dearest memory of the deceased.”

James Gaffigan here conducts the Orchestre national de France and Choeur de Radio France in the Mozart Requiem: