BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, September 26, 1824

Brother Johann comes to visit Ludwig and Nephew Karl in Baden today. They consider going to the theater in Baden, but their free tickets are not valid because it is a benefit performance. [They make no further reference to the performance, so they may have opted not to attend.]

There is a discussion of how to convert paper florins (W.W.) to hard coinage florins (C.M.) Karl explains, one takes the Convention amount and multiply it by 2 and one-half times to arrive at the W.W. amount. For example, 2 florins C.M. makes 5 florins W.W–2 times two makes 4, plus another 1/2 makes 5. However, Karl discovered a better method to immediately compute sums in W.W. into C.M. [Karl does not relate how this improved method works in the conversation book.]

Johann has made arrangements for copying the songs Opferlied op.121, Bundeslied op.122 and Der Kuss op.128. Ludwig can have the housekeeper Barbara Holzmann pick them up either tomorrow or when she goes into the City next. They will provide well-copied examples for the printer, and also return the originals.

Johann believes that the grape vines suffered a good deal from the frost two days ago and that they may all have frozen. He thus must hurry back to Gneixendorf to check on them. [Editor Theodore Albrecht observes that the temperatures at least in Vienna were nowhere near freezing this week, so Johann may have been making excuses to check up on his estate manager, whom he clearly does not trust.]

Nephew Karl asks what year it was that Uncle Ludwig sent the Battle of Vittoria [Wellington’s Victory, op.91.] It was sent in 1814, dedicated to the Prince Regent, who is currently King George IV.

Johann brings up Johann Andreas Stumpff, a gentleman from Thuringia who had long lived in London as a musician and harp maker. [Johann may see a note from Haslinger describing the prospective visitor and their plans to make the pilgrimage to Baden in a few days.] Johann suggests that when Stumpff visits, Ludwig should let him know that he still expects payment from the King for that dedication.

Former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler continues to be a nuisance. Ludwig contemplates paying him 50 florins for his services in connection with the two Akademie concerts to get rid of him. Johann agrees that this could close the matter, so he would not appear any more. It would be far cheaper to pay him 50 florins than to invite him to dinner.

Conversation Book 76, 1r-2v.

There do not appear to be any conversation book entries for tomorrow, Monday, September 27th. Stumpff according to his own account had traveled with Prussian Cavalry Captain von Kuroffsky-Eichen from Munich. Kuroffsky-Eichen’s arrival yesterday was noted in the Wiener Zeitung Nr.223 for September 28, 1824 at 933 in the Arrivals column.