BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, June 4, 1826 (very approximately)

A stray leaf torn from a conversation book that was used today or tomorrow survives at the Bonn Beethovenhaus, BH 53 pages 11-12. Unpaid assistant Karl Holz is talking to Beethoven about someone unidentified, who has been commissioned by the Musikverein to write a biography of Ignaz von Mosel. “He will be able to write something about him and his vanity; anyway, he can promise him to emphasize this characteristic as a great merit in Mosel’s biography.” They have commissioned a similar biography of Abbé Stadler. Beethoven remarks that they have said nothing about commissioning a biography about him. Holz agrees that they should, “but I said it would be a shame to give something like that to the Verein.”

Sometime, possibly around now, Beethoven writes a short note to S.A. Steiner & Co. “Before you make the final impression, please send me the score along with a copy. It’s urgent—It’s urgent—Please send me just two lines to confirm that you have received the 7 fl. for the Overture from me. All yours, Bee—.”

Brandenburg Letter 2102. The whereabouts of the original are unknown. The text is based upon a handwritten transcription by Theodore Frimmel, which is now held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus (Frimmel Estate M 45/6). Sieghard Brandenburg concludes that the note was addressed to a Viennese publisher, and from its content referred to a publication of an orchestral work in full score, which can only point to S.A. Steiner & Co. as the addressee.

The dating of the letter depends on the identification of the works in question. The wording regarding the Overture suggests a printed score, and not a set of parts. If the Overture is op.115 or 117, then the note dates from 1825 or 1826, respectively. About now seems appropriate, since op.116 and 117 were published in June and July of 1826. and Beethoven was highly agitated about the problems with the score of Tremate, empi Tremate, op.116 and would have wanted to see the final version before it went to press. If op.91, 92 or 93, the only other Beethoven orchestral works published in score by Steiner, is meant, then the letter would date from 1816 or 1817. But since the military epithets that Beethoven used during the latter period are absent, Brandenburg reasoned that the later dates were the more likely ones.