BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, July 4, 1824

Beethoven is still in Vienna today, and has a visitor, soprano Anna Milder-Hauptmann (1785-1838). She is a singer in the Berlin Court Opera. Most of her side of the conversation is written for her by Karl. She is interested in what kind of honorarium Beethoven would like for the Lied an die Freude, since she would like to give it at her concert, if there is something in it for her voice. [She plainly does not understand the nature of the Finale of the Ninth, which would hardly be suitable as a solo vocal piece.] Beethoven tells her how high the soprano part goes, and she asks why he writes the vocal line so high, and whether it is continuously high, or only in passing. In any event, she asks what his plans are for the score for the Lied an der Freude.

Milder-Hauptmann is in Vienna to visit her daughter Auguste (born 1811). She plans on staying until Thursday, July 8. She went yesterday to the Kärntnertor Theater, where she had once been engaged, and they had a full house for Rossini’s Otello. [This statement directly contradicts Johann’s claim yesterday that the Italian opera was finished.]

She notes that Fidelio is the favorite opera of the Berliners. Beethoven asks how she knows that, and she answers, “By seeing.” They also like Gluck, but Fidelio is best loved.

Beethoven mentions that his Consecration of the House Overture op.124 is to be played at the opening of the Königstadt Theater in Berlin. She is aware, and it is to be played for the first time on August 3.

Milder-Hauptmann thinks Beethoven receives a pension of 4,000 florins C.M. from Archduke Rudolph. She asks who the High Steward is, and Beethoven tells her Prince Ferdinand zu Trauttmannsdorf. Her understanding is the Tonkünstler Societät plans to give Beethoven’s Mass soon for a benefit concert. [It is unclear whether she means the Missa Solemnis, or the Mass in C; in any event the group never did the new Mass, and the older one was not given until 1863, so she was misinformed.]

She reports that she has received offers from the Theater an der Wien to sing there. [Beethoven does not appear to mention to her that no one associated with that theater has been paid in three months.]

She is staying at Jahn’s in the Augarten, but fears it is too far for Beethoven to walk. She asks whether Beethoven has anything new for a soprano voice. Unfortunately, he does not. She tells him that if she finds a suitable poem she will send it to him. Beethoven assures her he will write her something. She asks how much it would cost, and he says it would be a gift. She accepts with thanks. It can be sent to her in Carlsbad, if it is not finished before she departs. She is pleased to find Beethoven well, and Ludwig asks again where she is staying in Vienna.

After she leaves, Nephew Karl mentions that Prince Metternich, the chancellor, has let it be known in the Wiener Zeitung that he has wine for sale. [Editor Theodore Albrecht indicates a search of the Intelligenzblatt supplement to the Wiener Zeitung from June 21 to July 7 reveals no such advertisement.]

Karl also mentions that Thomas Dolliner (1760-1839), a professor of Canon Law, has been proscribed. [Again, the newspapers make no mention of such a situation, according to Prof. Albrecht.]

Talk turns to the differences between Catholics and Lutherans, and Karl notes that the Lutherans have no altar at all.

He also observes that Milder is already old. [She was 38.]

Finally, Karl mentions the newly-invented instrument, the Aelodicon, which is said to far surpass the human voice. [As the German editors note, this stringed instrument was demonstrated in a March 1824 concert at the Theater an der Wien, and the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described it in terms similar to Karl’s report, suggesting he may have read this report.]

Conversation Book 72, 31r-34v. This concludes Conversation Book 72. The next conversation book picks up again on Wednesday, July 7.