BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, June 11, 1826

Nephew Karl comes to visit his Uncle again today. He asked the housekeeper, Elise Seidl, how she liked the applicant yesterday, Elisabeth Passy. “She says she thinks she would not work, only let herself be waited on.” Karl notes she speaks French.

They discuss the possibility of going out to the country (possibly to Baden) for the summer. Just going out to the country would be enough for Uncle Ludwig, Karl suggests. The water of the baths doesn’t seem to help him. They could go out there in 8 days [Monday, June 19].

Karl reports that 4 lion cubs were born yesterday at van Aken’s menagerie. Brother Johann would have liked to go to see the menagerie but it was too expensive for him. [Karl implies that Johann is cheap.] He bought an old wagon somewhere that he has refitted so that it looks almost like new. He still has the pharmacy in Linz.

Ludwig asks how the Schiller drama, Die Braut von Messina [The Bride from Messina] was at the Burgtheater last night. “It was very well performed. A certain Stein [Eduard Stein of the Leipzig City Theater] performed as a guest in the part of one of the brothers; he acts very well.” Heinrich Anschutz (1785-1865), an actor at the Hofburgtheater, was one of the choir leaders.

They need to send the empty jugs [probably for wine] to Brother Johann. Karl suggests tapping both kegs remaining. “In the tavern you won’t get such wine for 2 florins.”

Karl mentions a pharmacist at Am Hof 324, “Zum weissen Engel” [At the Sign of the White Angel], who copies all mineral waters so well that they taste just as one finds them at the fountain, and thus better than the real thing that is bottled and sold here in Vienna.

Karl has a lot to do because exams are coming up soon.

Uncle Ludwig is depressed about how others see him. Karl in some fairly profound analysis that will be borne out by history, tells him, “Your shadow already comes from those who envy you; I do not need to add to them by coming here.” The small composers are annoyed because they do not think of things like Beethoven’s compositions. It is easy to understand. “How did it go with other great men: For example, the great [Hernán] Cortez, one of the greatest men who ever was and ever will be.—He also had his enemies, and precisely because he was a great man.” But he has the obstacle of his hearing, Beethoven complains. “That is exactly what must increase your fame. Everyone is wondering, not so much that you can write like that, but that you write like that in spite of this misfortune. I think that this even contributes to the originality that prevails in all your works. I do think that to other geniuses, no matter how great, a foreign thought might unknowingly intervene when they hear other compositions; this is not the case with you, because you create everything out of yourself.” Not to mention that it brings great interest for the publisher.

Karl observes that Schuppanzigh pleased very much at his recent May 11 concert in the Augarten, which featured three Beethoven works. A lot of the success depends on the execution.

Karl adds, “In my neighborhood lives one of the vice-kapellmeisters at the Kärntnertor Theater; he said to me recently that your Fidelio will soon be performed and that everyone is looking forward to it very much. [Fidelio is not in fact performed again in Vienna until several years after Beethoven’s death.] Uncle Ludwig declares that he should write more operas. Karl agrees, “Operas would be best!” The spirit is youthful, he adds.

The housekeeper has bought schnitzel. Karl wonders that Holz never showed up yesterday. Karl leaves early. “I also have to get up early tomorrow, and it is a long way [to his rooms].” Uncle Ludwig laments that Karl is so far away. Karl reminds him, “You yourself read about the apartment [in the Schwarzspanierhaus] in the newspaper and you took it yourself. I would prefer that we lived closer to each other.” Karl promises to visit his uncle the day after tomorrow [Tuesday, June 13].

Conversation Book 112, 18r-21v.

Beethoven writes to unpaid assistant Karl Holz possibly today, but sometime after October 17 1825 and before August 6, 1826, with some urgency about Nephew Karl and his studies. “I ask you to come as soon as possible so that we can arrange everything necessary. It is no small task. He wanted to leave early again.”

“Yours sincerely, Beethoven.”

Brandenburg Letter 2077; Anderson Letter 1490. The original letter appears to be lost; the text is from TDR V p.352, from a copy by Otto Jahn amongst Thayer’s materials.