BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, July 24, 1825

Nephew Karl is still with Uncle Ludwig in Baden. They have a visitor today. Karl writes that he just learned how it was with someone whose name is obliterated from the conversation book. “He went to see the baker’s wife [i.e., Josepha Obermayer, Johann’s sister-in-law] and told her that he had to buy something for you. He needed 4 twenty [kreutzer] coins for it, but didn’t have them. Therefore she was willing to lend them to him and did so. Since then, he has never returned.”

Violinist [and future unpaid assistant] Karl Holz comes to visit Beethoven today, Beethoven asks Holz what his day job is, and how much it pays. Holz replies that he is a cashier’s officer for the Lower Austrian Assembly; his salary is 700 florins per year.

Several days ago, someone [possibly Russian visitor Alexander Thal] proposed Holz come with him to Baden, but Holz would have to pay his expenses. Beethoven finds that rather forward, and Holz explains he was only joking. But they waited till the weekend since they didn’t want to be an annoyance to Beethoven. [Also, in his July 18 letter to Karl, Beethoven had suggested that Thal visit him on a Sunday.]

Karl is going to the Fuchs wine shop. He suggests the others go for a walk and he will make the arrangements at the house. Thal will be there right away.

Holz [possibly on their walk] mentions that Ferdinand Piringer, co-conductor of the Concerts spirituels, will soon be a father. He devotes a great deal to his reputation as director. Beethoven likes Piringer, and Holz agrees, he is a very pleasant person.

Beethoven gets a nosebleed and says he needs to see a doctor. He is dissatisfied with Braunhofer and Staudenheim, and wants to get the best doctor. Holz asks whether he means Dr. Dominik Vivenot (1764-1833) or Dr. Joseph Röhrig. Holz thinks that the nosebleed is very beneficial. The doctors ask for a set fee, but Holz is unsure whether it is paid annually, or per visit. He’ll speak to Vivenot about it. He thinks without asking that Vivenot wouldn’t ask for any payment. Piringer also has a skillful physician, his brother-in-law Carl Maquet.

Comparing notes on their illnesses, Holz mentions that his abdomen also was weakened after he suffered from jaundice. [Beethoven had an extended bout of jaundice in the summer of 1821.] Holz still has to take pills for it daily.

Holz mentions that “He will never write anything better than what he has already written.” [Prof. Theodore Albrecht suggests that this reference might be to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.]

Holz and Beethoven return to the apartment at Schloss Gutenbrunn, and meet Karl, who bought some Bordeaux wine. They discuss cellist Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841). Nephew Karl mentions that he always plays without music. Holz chimes in that he “makes heavenly faces when he does.” He had spent time in St. Petersburg, and Karl mentions that Schuppanzigh had also. Like Beethoven, Romberg got a medal in France. However, his was not from the King, like Beethoven’s, but was awarded by a Society of Friends of Art.

Pierre Rode (1774-1830), a Parisian violinist, comes up. Holz mentions that he was a spy; he would have been sent to Siberia with his nose and ears cut off if he had been caught. The mayor of Berlin, who was a great music lover, was unable to invite Rode to his place because of his reputation as a rogue.

Beethoven shows Holz some music [the score to the nearly-finished, if not completed, quartet op.132], and Holz says it isn’t hard to read at all. Holz sees Beethoven has some 12-lined music paper; he asks whether it’s for Joseph Linke, the cellist in the Schuppanzigh Quartet. [Linke had been promised the premiere of the op.127 quartet for a benefit concert, but did not get it; there has been discussion that he would get the premiere of op.132 as a consolation. The 12-staff paper may actually be intended for the next pocket sketchbook Beethoven assembles and stitches together, Egerton 2795.] The plan is for Linke to copy the parts for several of the movements of the new quartet; Holz suggests Benjamin Gebauer might be a possibility, but Beethoven did not like his work on the Third Symphony or Christ on the Mount of Olives some twenty years earlier. Holz comments on all the trouble that the previous quartet [op.127] engendered; but the new quartet is a grand new work. Beethoven appears to make a comment about copyists not having good eyes; Holz replies, “Many people have good eyes, but they look through cloudy eyeglasses that they don’t want to wipe clean.”

Holz quotes several lines from the play Attila by Zacharias Werner (1768-1823):
“Man can do without a great deal, but
Not without wood.
It offers us a cool breeze, fruit, and glowing fire.”
[As Prof. Albrecht observes, this is probably tied to some joke Beethoven made about Holz’s name, wood being Holz in German.] Karl is smoking a pipe, and jokes that it is from the tobacco of the wood [Holz] of Christ. It is Brazilian tobacco that he’s smoking.

The subject of miracles, possibly from the reference to the True Cross, comes up. [Beethoven has recently made notes about books on pilgrimages to supposedly miraculous sites nearby.] Karl mentions that in Rome there is a man who through the power of prayer makes roasted chickens fly around off the platter. Holz jokingly asks Beethoven where he wants to fly away to.

Karl notes that it’s almost 4:30, and there are still some necessities to take care of before he departs for Vienna on the afternoon coach. There are still 10 florins per month for laundry service that needs to be paid. He mentions that Brother Johann suggests that when Ludwig is paid gold ducats he can take one of the coins to test the purity of the gold, slicing off a small chunk of the rim with a knife. [In that way, Johann can verify they are genuine gold.] Nephew Karl heads back to Vienna.

Holz is staying in Baden tonight, presumably at the Adler Hotel, where he has stayed before. He continues a long conversation with Beethoven. Holz suggests that they get a meal before the restaurants stop serving hot food at 6:30. Beethoven would like Holz to copy two of the movements of the quartet also. Holz asks when he wants to proofread them.

Ludwig frets about Nephew Karl’s future, and what a disappointment his University career was. Holz makes the best of it, and reminds Beethoven that he has dedicated the means to help Karl raise himself up again; it’s the right thing to do.

Beethoven is unsure whether he has another quartet in him; these last two have taken a lot out of him. Holz says that if there is no profit in it, why bother? Holz asks whether Beethoven lacks the enthusiasm to compose the third quartet for Galitzin. [Despite Beethoven’s representations to multiple parties, the op.130 quartet is not very far along at all.] Even so, Beethoven should consider doing the work for honor in posterity. “At least do what is possible.” And then there are the deplorable censorship laws.

Holz suggests they go for a little walk outside. They discuss musical gossip. Holz says that in the Vienna correspondents’ articles in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, a series of Masses by Ignaz von Seyfried were the most extensively covered works.

Beethoven suggests that his prolific former student Carl Czerny might make a piano arrangement of the new quartet, much as he had done for the Consecration of the House Overture, op.124. Holz thinks he could do it right away. He comments that the name Czerny means “black.”

Composer Jan Václav Voříšek (born 1791), whom Beethoven knows, has tuberculosis, and Holz believes he will die soon. [Indeed, he dies in November of 1825.] It was quite sudden; he had a neglected lung infection.

Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries has agreed to do a piano arrangement of the Variations brillante in E major, op.40 for violin and piano by Joseph Mayseder. Holz thinks Mayseder has the energy of three Louis Spohrs.

There is a discussion of conductors and tempi. Holz opines, “Indeed, he has to feel it. In my opinion, the composer cannot designate the tempo so precisely that it remains unchanged. I mean that it will always go faster or slower, depending upon the feeling of the director.

Holz notes that at Beethoven’s last Akademie concerts, in May of 1824, the wind instruments projected more in the Kärntnertor theater [the first Akademie concert], while the strings projected more in the Redoutensaal [the second Akademie concert.]

And then there is the Court Music Administrator, Count Moritz von Dietrichstein (1775-1864). His main interests are horses, dogs and girls! He doesn’t want to grant permission for Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, op.85 to be given again, even though he knows that it will always fill the house. But Abbé Stadler’s oratorio, The Liberation of Jerusalem, that will be given. Holz jokes, “then every member of the audience can hear it in peace, because every one of them will have an entire bench to himself, on which to sleep.”

It takes talent to make a poet; it’s not good enough to just be someone who speaks.

Beethoven and Holz stop for refreshments. In Holz’s opinion, there are too many officials, too many soldiers, too much money, too many priests, too little understanding. The orchestra [probably the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde orchestra] is too poorly provisioned. The music stands are draped with cloth. That way the eye has something nicer to see, but the ear has less to hear. But they gossip about the most insignificant things. Even the director, Ferdinand Piringer, is like an old woman in this respect. “They sustain the market for loud music.”

Holz then rattles off opinions about some Vienna musicians, including Stadler, Mosel and the Kozeluchs. As to Leopold Kozeluch, Holz says “A person could bang across a fortress gate with such a fellow.”

Holz intends to reserve a carriage for tomorrow morning to return to Vienna.

Either Beethoven or Holz writes a short musical example at 27v of Conversation Book 91, a detail of which is attached, courtesy of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. The music itself is unidentified.

Holz continues with more questions about the copying of the quartet. Wenzel Rampl will agree to deal with it only if it is copied out in a clear hand first; he is no longer willing to work from Beethoven’s autographs. Holz thinks he will have the two movements that he is to copy done by Wednesday, and he’ll bring them to Baden. When Linke is finished copying his movements from the score, then Rampl can re-copy it, cleanly and on lightweight letter paper. [The reference to weight of the paper suggests that the copy by Rampl is intended for Prince Nikolai Galitzin, who had commissioned it.]

Beethoven is a bit tired and quite hungry, so they have some chicken. But the exercise was beneficial. They discuss the cooking of chickens. Holz feels that if they are to be tender, they need to be gutted and placed in water two hours before they are baked. Holz thinks the dark meat is better than the white, and urges Beethoven to try it.

Holz drinks his first glass of water quite quickly as he got very thirsty walking today. He thinks that Beethoven probably can drink mineral water without checking with a physician first. Holz explains that he asked about the payment for the doctors, because Nephew Karl had told him that he should discuss the matter with Uncle Ludwig ahead of time. Ludwig asks why Karl was involved, and Holz tells him that he was present when they were talking earlier about him changing physicians. Karl might have thought that Vivenot was too expensive. Holz still thinks Vivenot would refuse to accept payment. But Holz thinks Beethoven should not make a big deal about it, it was probably nothing more than Karl’s belief. Beethoven could probably go to another physician at less expense.

Holz raises an issue with the Ninth Symphony. In the Finale, Beethoven does not use the 9th verse of the poem An die Freude, which begins “Allen Sündern soll vergeben, Und die Hölle…” [“All sinners shall be forgiven, and Hell…” This ninth verse makes reference to rescue from the chains of tyrants, and as a result, this verse was commonly suppressed in printed editions of Schiller’s poetry. The censors would almost certainly have refused to approve its use in the Ninth Symphony, and it is rather naive of Holz to think otherwise.]

Holz then quotes two more literary sources. He brings up August von Kotzebue (1761-1819), who had denounced the multiplication tables as heartless. Since they have been taught in the schools [Karl learned multiplication, for example] there have been no more comedies, Holz comments. Beethoven expresses admiration for Kotzebue [whose King Stephan and The Ruins of Athens Beethoven had set to music.] Holz points out that Kotzebue also wrote against Goethe. This surprises Beethoven, and Holz cites an essay written by Kotzebue, “Proof that Herr Goethe Does Not Understand Any German.” [Published in November 1805.]

Beethoven mentions his love of Shakespeare; Holz says “Shakespeare is the eternal model.”

After some further chatting on this very long day, Holz goes to reserve his carriage. “Until I see you again — with the correct copy (if God wills!)”

Conversation Book 91, 16v-31v.

As it turns out, it takes Holz much longer to copy the quartet movements than he had anticipated, and they are still not finished on August 10 when Beethoven sends him a testy followup note.