BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, May 2, 1824

Today is a highly important one for Beethoven, as it will include the first rehearsals for the Ninth Symphony. Unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes to Beethoven’s apartment with the carriage but the composer isn’t ready yet. Schindler says he will go pick up conductor Michael Umlauf and come back for Beethoven.

Schindler returns a little while later with word that Umlauf has already left his house. Schindler packs Beethoven into the carriage, and they head to the Landständischer Hall, arriving just before the 9 a.m. rehearsal is to begin. The vocal soloists will arrive later. The first hour is devoted primarily to the dilettantes (though some of the professionals are also present) and can be considered an exercise proofreading the parts to a large extent. The new principal bassoonist for the Kärntnertor Theater, Theobald Hürth (1795-1858) and first horn player Elias Lewy (1796-1846), both Swiss musicians, come to pay Beethoven their compliments.

Unfortunately, conductor Michael Umlauf has had too little time with the scores to be fully prepared. He doubts two rehearsals will be enough for the concert to come together.

During the rehearsal of the first movement of the Ninth, the wind players are lost. “The winds are going to the devil,” says Schindler. He suggests that they run through it first with the strings only, so that the winds can hear what they are supposed to be doing. Schindler archly suggests that this was Schuppanzigh’s responsibility to handle.

The Scherzo goes some better, although no one seems to be sure how the repeats and the coda are supposed to work. Schindler suggests it would be better to have the repeats written out in full [the surviving parts show no indication of this having been done.] The copyists apparently paid no attention to where the page turns would be convenient, making the performance harder than it should be.

The third movement proceeds without notable incident, but unsurprisingly the Finale is challenging. Umlauf suggests that the Allegro energico be taken as 6/4, rather than the 3/2 that Beethoven has written. The composer accepts that change without argument.

Having run through the symphony once, the musicians take a break as the rest of the professional musicians arrive. The date of the Akademie is in flux again, with posters to be printed tomorrow for a concert now to be held on Wednesday May 5. But clearly more than two rehearsals are needed based on this morning’s results, so a delay will be needed. There’s already an opera set at the Kärntnertor Theater for Thursday May 6th, so the first day available after Wednesday would be Friday, May 7.

If that date is used, then the proposed rehearsal calendar would be to hold choral rehearsals tomorrow afternoon [Monday May 3], large scale rehearsals with everyone on Tuesday May 4 and Wednesday May 5, and then another on Thursday May 6, and that would work. Beethoven isn’t happy about the delay, but Schindler acknowledges that it’s better.

The group begins working on the Missa Solemnis movements, the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei. They finish that around 2 p.m. It goes badly enough that Schinder suggests that the Mass be removed from the concert altogether. The alternative is perhaps prayer.

Schindler needs to go see bass Joseph Preisinger with what was gleaned from this morning’s rehearsal of the Ninth. The girls, Henriette Sontag and Caroline Unger, don’t understand their parts. They will need a rehearsal just for themselves.

The unanimous consensus of the leaders, submitted for Beethoven’s approval, is to postpone the concert until Friday May 7. Tomorrow there will be a rehearsal with the solo singers. Tuesday May 4 will be a large-scale rehearsal. Wednesday will be a small scale rehearsal, and Thursday the general rehearsal.

In support of that proposition, Ignaz Schuppanzigh chimes in that “The music cannot be played in a sloppy manner; it will be better if we can get a few more days.” Beethoven [who plainly cannot hear anything that’s going on today.] asks Schuppanzigh whether Sontag and Unger are really as lost as Schindler tells him. “The singers don’t know a note yet.” Beethoven reluctantly agrees to the postponement, having little choice.

Schindler suggests that the Landständischer Hall will be available for the large-scale rehearsal on Tuesday, May 4. He’ll arrange for getting more music stands. Beethoven suggests perhaps they could use the larger Redoutensaal instead. Schindler rejects that as there is no light. Beethoven asks where the chorus will be placed in the Kärntnertor Theater. They would be sitting below the stage where the orchestra is seated, so between the orchestra and the audience.

At the conclusion of the rehearsal, Schindler observes that the wind section of the Kärntnertor Theater “is very miserable.” The dilettantes have left. The parts are gathered up, since changes will need to be made to the Scherzo of the Ninth.

Beethoven and Schindler give Sontag and Unger a ride in the carriage to the Theater an der Wien. The two men glumly return to Beethoven’s apartment around 2:30. Schindler pays the coachman 7 and a half florins. Beethoven thinks that’s too much [Schindler had said 5 or 6 yesterday] but Schindler points out that he has driven a great deal since 8 o’clock this morning.

Back in the apartment, Schindler tries to cheer Beethoven up with thoughts of his summer apartment in Penzing. He will be comfortable there, and there is a restaurant nearby; if needed he could have food brought to the house.

Copyist Peter Gläser is coming tomorrow at 10 o’clock to fix the parts for the Scherzo. He’ll just append tabs to facilitate the page turns. [Beethoven almost certainly is involved in deciding what is needed and where.] That will be the shortest and surest remedy.

They go to a restaurant for mid-day dinner, probably the nearby Golden Pear. Beethoven is irritated at the copies needing to be corrected, and hopes that will be the end of it. Schindler agrees, “God preserve you from new corrections.” The idea of writing out the repeats in the Scherzo comes up again, but that would essentially involve rewriting the parts and there is no time to do that. What Gläser will do is write out tabs to make the page turns easier, and those will be pasted on. [The few surviving parts from the concert held by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and the Juilliard School show signs of such tabs being pasted on, according to editor Theodore Albrecht.]

Once Umlauf knows the score better, Schindler is confident that the orchestra will follow him, since they are all accustomed to him.

Haitzinger only got the tenor part from Franz Jäger today, though he learned it passably well at sight. “But the two girls don’t know what they are singing.” They will need a piano rehearsal, Schindler suggests.

Beethoven asks about the choral rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. Schindler forgot about it. He will have Ignaz Dirzka do it tomorrow afternoon, Monday, May 3.

Several acquaintances of Schindler come to the restaurant along with some of the members of the orchestra. Among them is Wenzel Sedlak, who is the director of the wind band of Prince Liechtenstein. A stranger from Mainz delivers the latest letter from music publisher B. Schott’s Sons to Beethoven.

Beethoven asks who were the gentlemen who paid him compliments this morning. They were the bassoonist and hornist of the Kärntnertor, Hürth and Lewy. They both have only recently come from Switzerland.

Schindler asks whether Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s pupil and most devoted patron, will be attending the concert. There is reference to the Feast of Corpus Christi, in six weeks, which may be when Rudolph is intending to return to his seat in Olmütz. Beethoven is still waiting for Rudolph’s permission to publish the Missa Solemnis, which was dedicated to him. Schindler is unconcerned and is certain Rudolph will grant that permission.

Returning to Beethoven’s apartment, where Nephew Karl has been for some time, Schindler asks for a note to choral director Dirzka, requesting he take pains with the rehearsal of the choruses. A few words from Beethoven will surely work wonders. At the same time, they should be asked to assemble their personnel at the Landständischer Hall for the first large-scale rehearsal on Tuesday, May 4 at 10 o’clock.

There is some brief discussion of the confusion to be in store as the maid, Elise Strobl, is engaged to a man named Ströbl. Karl adds that “Thus in the future her name will be: Elise Ströbl, née Strobl.”

There is mention of something [possibly the piano rehearsal for Sontag and Unger] at 5 o’clock tomorrow. Schindler will confirm it tomorrow morning.

Schindler says Gläser knows exactly what to do; he has given him the instructions. [It appears Gläser and his assistants will tonight be writing out the additional music on tabs to help with the awkward and confusing page turns around the repeats. Tomorrow morning, he will come at 10 a.m. to work with Beethoven and Schindler to check them and paste them into the orchestral parts as needed.]

Karl displays his affection for linguistics. Schindler observes that Karl etymologizes entirely in old German. Karl clarifies, “I was speaking of the word seyn. In old German, one did not say ‘seyn,’ but ‘we-sen;’ therefore, then the origin of the seeming irregularities: for instance, in the imperfect ‘ich war;’ surely that cannot come from ‘seyn.’ Now, in olden times, as one can see from their books, they said, ‘ich was‘ as the imperfect of ‘wesen‘ (as in ‘le-sen,’ ‘ich las‘).” Schindler raises an objection. “That is surely not the point,” answers Karl. “‘Wie es ist,’ but instead ‘wie es war,’ and ‘seyn sollte‘ [should be]. Would you approve if, when using ‘lesen‘ one said ‘ich lar‘? How did the r get here?”

Schindler is out of his depth and knows it. He tells Ludwig to take the flannel ties for his vest. He will come tomorrow before Gläser, so he can supervise and everything can be done quickly. He asks again for the note for Dirzka. Beethoven complies, and Schindler departs.

The Beethovens leave for a coffee house and to read the newspapers to help take Uncle Ludwig’s mind off the concert. But at last, the date and the place for the first Akademie concert are set, and will not change again: the Kärntnertor Theater, on Friday May 7, 1824. Only four days are left in between and there is still very much left to do.

Conversation Book 64, 22v-29v.