BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, March 12, 1826

Unpaid assistant Karl Holz stops by briefly this morning at Beethoven’s apartment. Holz wants to let Beethoven know that he was at Prince Hatzfeld’s office yesterday and spoke to his secretary. The Prince has already written to King Friedrich Wilhelm III, suggesting that the request to dedicate the Ninth Symphony to him will be looked on favorably, and a monetary pledge would be appropriate. Beethoven asks whether any response has been received yet. No, but that should happen soon, Holz thinks. Holz appears to depart promptly.

Nephew Karl visits Uncle Ludwig. Holz told him that the housekeeper that is starting is very good.

Uncle Ludwig is angry that he has learned through Holz that Nephew Karl, who has been studying at the Polytechnic for a year now, is still seeing a tutor and disappearing from the Schuppanzigh Quartet concerts on Sunday afternoons. Holz has reported to him that Karl often leaves the Sunday concerts early. Holz has also spoken to the tutor, named Klaps or Klabs. Karl answers Uncle Ludwig, “I told you right from the beginning that I would only go to him if there was a particular abundance of work to be done. Naturally, however, this has taken place less often in recent times, because I was always in a position to more easily help myself. If it didn’t happen in the evening, then it took place, as you have already learned, after 2 o’clock in midday. I never said that I went to see him every Sunday, but that depends on how many and how difficult the calculations are that I have to make. By the way, the tutor (who, I think, has no reason to be dissatisfied with me) can also attest that I use my time well. He will also have reported good things about this during the conversation that I have just now learned that he had with Holz.”

After tempers cool down, Holz appears to leave. Karl and Ludwig go grocery shopping. They buy some butter and eggs and other items for a total of 11 florins 45 kreutzers. But there is no tripe or oil to be had there.

Back at Beethoven’s apartment, Karl mentions that the Emperor appears likely to die. [In fact, in coming days he will be given the Last Rites. However, he recovers and lives until 1835.]

Karl asks for money for pens and paper that he wants to buy on the walk home. He needs a lot of it for his bookkeeping class, and his assignments need to be written in a neat copy now. Karl will report tomorrow. There is too little paper here for his needs. He must take two books immediately because the bookkeeping books are large and every one of them takes many bifolia.

Frau Lindner, on her way out of Beethoven’s service, blames Barbara Holzmann for carrying the missing spoon out with the eggs. She believes it has been misplaced. She says she has not had a spoon in her hand yet today. She will not accept a deduction from her pay for the missing spoons; Beethoven would be better off investigating rather than judging. [The matter of the missing spoon appears to remain unresolved for now.]

Later at the Carl Gerold bookshop in the Stephansplatz, Beethoven makes note of a book Theory and Literature of the German Poetic Art, by Ph. Mayer.

The new housekeeper comes to Beethoven’s apartment today. She says she’ll buy some raisins and some small grapes. She’ll need a bit of sugar to make the Gugelhupf. She’ll look for the form in the kitchen. She thinks she can make do with what is there today, and she can buy more of everything that’s needed. The old woman, Barbara Holzmann, is staying on in the meantime, despite her recommendation that Holzmann be dismissed. [Beethoven is no doubt hedging his bets on the new housekeeper being better than Holzmann.] She asks whether Beethoven would prefer boullion with noodles as a side dish. [“Noodles” is crossed out, so Beethoven may have said without.] She can’t find the baking form for the Gugelhupf, though. She suspects it might have been pawned, in which case she can redeem it. That would be cheaper than buying a new form.

Beethoven also jots a note, likely for one of the housekeeper’s requests: “+ A sack for dark clothes.”

Nephew Karl confirms that the Gugelhupf form has been misplaced for several days.

The building superintendent or a repairman comes regarding the pipes in the kitchen. They need to run through the room and then go out by the stove.

Karl leaves around 11:45 a.m., meeting unpaid assistant Karl Holz at the large Redoutensaal for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde concert scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. According to the report in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.18 (May 3, 1826) col.303, the program consists of a Mozart symphony in D, likely Nr.35 “Haffner;” an aria by Pietro Raimondi; a movement from Louis Spohr’s Violin Concerto Nr.3 in C, op.7; the Overture to the opera Faniska by Luigi Cherubini; and a portion of the oratorio Das Leiden unsers Herrn Jesus Christus by Joseph Weigl.

If Holz and Karl walk directly to Beethoven’s apartment in the Schwarzspanierhaus after the concert, they probably arrive around 2:15 p.m. Holz asks whether the new housekeeper knows she needs to provide a daily reckoning of all her expenses. Karl agrees, saying that it’s better to keep track of the bills. Karl mentions they skipped the oratorio by Weigl, who was sitting in the doorway to watch and see who left early.

Holz reports on the concert, “The Symphony went well. A Fräulein [Caroline] Jerusalem sang a Rossini aria. The Jews applauded noisily. Cherubini’s Overture to Faniska was given well. A Violin Concerto by Spohr did not arouse any particular interest, although the soloist, a Conservatory student, Peregrin Feigerl, played well.”

Departing housekeeper Frau Lindner said that Beethoven did not give her enough money to go shopping, so she little by little “borrowed” 20 kreutzers or 30 kreutzers until it amounted to 8 florins. If Holz is going to pay her off what she’s owed on Tuesday morning as planned, he wants to make sure it’s done in the presence of Holzmann so he has a witness and Holzmann can recoup whatever she has loaned to Lindner. Anything further regarding their debts to each other is nobody’s business.

Nephew Karl reports that 2 florins 21 kreutzers are missing from the 12 florins 30 kreutzers. Karl then adds up the expenses again and concludes that only 15 kreutzers are missing. Lindner bought spinach with stems on it, so Holzmann had to remove them, and that left them short of spinach. Holzmann then remembers she bought bratwursts with the missing 15 kreutzers, so everything is accounted for.

Holz changes the subject. Last evening, they were at Domenico Artaria’s. Carl von Bocklet (1801-1881) improvised on the piano. Fraulein Antonia Zizius (1773-1846) always comes to Artaria’s soirées and inquires very enthusiastically about Beethoven.

Back to household matters: The cord to turn the roasting spit is torn. It will need to be replaced. Holz, possibly at the suggestion of the new housekeeper, mentions that veal roast marinated in milk is said to be a delicious dish, but it needs to be done 2 days in advance.

Holz tells Beethoven that in 10 days, the Quartet op.130 will come into the world. [The premiere is on March 21, so Holz must be counting today in his 10 days.]

Frau Lindner also broke a number of glasses; she will need to tell them how much such a glass costs, and then that also will be deducted from her pay. Beethoven asks what happened to the glasses. Karl explains they placed the glasses on the stove, where they exploded. Lindner is coming on Tuesday at 8 a.m.

After dinner, the housekeeper brings a pastry [presumably Gugelhupf, but the commentary is unclear] she went out and had prepared at the bakery. If one pays a few groschen to the baker, one would spend more than that on wood baking it at home. Holz says it’s his favorite pastry. Several times he’s made a big one for himself at home and happily devoured it in one sitting. The housekeeper grinds coffee to go with the pastry, making it too loud to talk.

Afterwards, Holz and Nephew Karl go to the Schuppanzigh Quartet concert, held at 4:30 p.m. at the Musikverein. The first piece is Haydn’s Erdödy Quartet in C [“Kaiser,” op.76/3 Hob. III/77; the concert originally was planned to feature the Appony Quartet in C major. op.74/1 Hob.III/72, but a substitution was made for the Kaiser Quartet because of the Emperor’s illness], followed by Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, op.16, with Albin Pfaller on the piano, and a string quintet in C minor by Mozart [Nr.2, K.406.] Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung May 3, 1826 (Nr.18) at 304.

They return in the evening, around 7:30. Holz reports that as Schuppanzigh walked in, Holz stood up and “commanded him loudly in the name of Herr van Beethoven to kiss the hand of Frau von Vivenot in a becoming manner, in accordance with the instructions he had previously been given; and he did so with all possible grace.”

Nephew Karl reports that the Emperor’s condition is very dangerous. He provides a reckoning of his expenses for his uncle:

2 books of paper at 54 kr. per book, or 1 fl. 48 kr.
A bundle of feather pens at 1 l 30 kr.
A small bottle of ink at 15 kr., and blotting sand likewise at 15 kr. The total comes to 3 florins 48 kreutzers, leaving 1 florin 12 kreutzers left over from the 5 florins Uncle Ludwig gave him. Karl observes that “The way we write needs a complete make-over.”

Beethoven asks when the Schuppanzigh Quartet will be rehearsing at his apartment. They will be there the evening of Wednesday, March 15.

Holz and Karl go home.

Conversation Book 106, 18v-29r.

According to some notes written by Beethoven of dealings with his housekeepers, now held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, NE 354, he gives 6 candles to the new housekeeper. Six jugs of mineral water are bought and put into the cellar. Beethoven also notes “on the 12th of March the new housekeeper entered,” confirming the date of today’s conversation book entries.