BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, June 12, 1825
Karl mentions that the day before yesterday [Friday, June 10], a bolt of lightning struck and killed 3 horses on the Leopoldstadt Bridge over the Danube Canal in Vienna. “The horses were sweating a great deal, and that strongly attracted the lightning.” [Karl is a business major, not a science major.]
Uncle Ludwig had Karl tell the maid that he will pay her carriage fare to the City and back again to redeem her overcoat that a friend pawned rather than keeping it for safekeeping. Karl reports “that very much delighted her. She will gladly stay.” So it seems at least Ludwig doesn’t need to look for a new maid just yet.
Ludwig and Karl are subscribing to the edition of Schiller’s works in 10 small volumes, and they will need to pay another florin.
Karl really needs a small [ink] brush; he has been making do with a pen. Uncle Ludwig complains about Karl’s expenditures, but Karl retorts that he accounts to his uncle for everything.
Karl returns to Vienna in the late afternoon.
Conversation Book 90, 2v-3r.
Probably after Nephew Karl has left, Ludwig writes a letter dated today to his friend publisher Tobias Haslinger. “Best one! Something has been cobbled together for you, so take care of it as best you can. A cheap tip, along with the payment of your expenses, will not be lacking. As regards the March with Choir [op.114 from The Ruins of Athens], the final proof should be sent to me, also that of the Overture in E-flat [King Stephan, op.117] The Trio, the Elegy, the Cantata, the opera should come out along with it. Otherwise, I won’t make much fuss about it, since your rights have already lapsed. Only my generosity gives you a greater fee for the work than you are giving me.”
“I needed the score of the cantata for a few days, as I want to write a kind of overture for it. Mine is so fragmented that I can’t find all of it. I would need to have it written from the parts. Has the Leipzig Musical Fair not yet revoked all the lies about my medal received from His Majesty the deceased French King? They would be mean enough not to send me any more copies. If they do not retract their statements, I will have the editor [of the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung] and his pulmonary-sick principal harpooned in the northern waters, amongst the whales.”
“Even the barbaric Baden is becoming clearer, as one writes now GutenBrun, rather than the Gutenbrunn of before. But what are the P.[ater] n.[oster] Gäßl.[er] writing instead of große (grosse)? Now I have all respect, i.e., I have no respect at all for the barbaric P.[ater] n.[oster] gäßl.[er]”
“Yours faithfully (in Comparativo), B——-n.”
“P.[ater] n.[oster] gäßl. primus will again let fiery flames come forth from his throat like mephistophiles [sic].”
Brandenburg Letter 1992, Anderson Letter 1388. The March and Chorus op.114 had previously been published in two- and four-hand piano arrangements in 1822, but only now were the full score and the parts being published by Steiner. The letter is full, as usual in the correspondence with Haslinger, of obscure in-jokes and puns, indicating Beethoven is in a fairly good mood after Karl’s visit. Beethoven is staying, as he did last summer, at Schloss Gutenbrunn; apparently Haslinger had come up with some creative spellings of that name and Beethoven was making fun of him. Paternostergäßler was the short street where Steiner’s music shop was located, and Beethoven seldom missed a chance to comment on that street name. The original is held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (mus. ep. autogr. Beethoven 2).