BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, January 16, 1825

Nephew Karl writes out for his uncle what the meals today will be: mid-day dinner is leg of veal, and poultry for the evening meal. This displeases Ludwig, for Karl jokingly writes in French, “Quel triste visage!” [What a sad face!]

Karl totals up for his uncle the money that will soon be coming in:

1000 florins for the Missa Solemnis;
600 florins for the Ninth Symphony;
225 florins for the Quartet op.127
550 florins from Schott for opp.121b, 122, 124, 126 and 128. [Though this money actually goes to Johann; Karl’s math mistakenly uses the price quoted to Probst of 100 ducats; 130 ducats=585 florins]
Total of 2375 florins

Conversation Book 81, 17r.

From later conversation book entries, it appears that Brother Johann and Ludwig visit Tobias Haslinger at Steiner’s music shop this afternoon. Haslinger tells Johann about the recent letter from Johann Reinhold Schultz, who is interested in publishing the Consecration of the House Overture. Haslinger is unable to put his hands on the letter at the moment, and asks Johann to come back tomorrow morning, and he should be able to find it by then. Haslinger does not, however, write in the conversation book, and Johann apparently does not feel it necessary to mention anything to Ludwig until he has seen the letter himself. It’s also possible that they communicated with Ludwig using scraps of paper no longer preserved, rather than the conversation book.

The new Court Theater opened in Munich on January 5 of this year. The grand opening was comprised of a cycle of six performances, being given from January 2nd through the 24th on a subscription basis. The fourth of these six performances, held today, is of Egmont, a tragedy in three acts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, with Beethoven’s overture and entr’actes. Wiener Theater-Zeitung (Nr.157) of December 30, 1824, at 628.