BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, March 26, 1826

Today is Easter Sunday. Beethoven almost never attends church, though Nephew Karl probably does.

A grand vocal and instrumental Akademie concert for the benefit of public charitable institutions is held today at 7 p.m. in the large Redoutensaal. Joseph Katter and Joseph Weigl serve as conductors. Included as the sixth amongst the ten works on the concert program is Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, op.84. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.19 (May 10, 1826) at 311. The Wiener Zeitschrift of April 8, 1826 (Nr.42) at 336 notes that the concert was well attended, as it is every year. After the Trio from Rossini’s La gazza ladra, “Beethoven’s masterpiece, the overture to Goethe’s Egmont, then followed. This magnificent work arouses ever greater admiration the more often one has the opportunity to hear it. If any musical work deserves the name ‘tone poem,’ it is this ingenious piece. It is the most worthy preface and introduction to Goethe’s masterpiece. The performance was excellent, the applause loud and well-deserved.” A handbill for the concert is reproduced here courtesy of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

Concerned about the rapidly declining health of Carl Maria von Weber, Sir George Smart, who visited Beethoven in Baden last September, arranges for a Dr. Severin to visit Weber. Dr. Severin tells Weber not to worry and prescribes him some pills and recommends that a rabbit skin be placed on his chest.