BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, September 29, 1822 (approximately)

Sometime between September 25 and October 2, Beethoven dictates a letter from Baden bei Wien to his brother Johann regarding various business matters. Ludwig chides Johann for letting him embarrass himself by lack of a reply to his letters; apparently he had gotten the idea Johann had fallen out with Steiner over the resolution of Ludwig’s debts owed to that publisher. Ludwig also notes that he remembers he owes Johann 200 gulden he had borrowed in August and meant to repay in September, but has failed to do so.

As a result Ludwig had written to Simrock in Bonn saying he could have the Missa Solemnis for the increased price of 1000 florins C.M. But now Johann (in a lost letter) says that he wants to try to sell the Mass himself; Ludwig is fine with that, but they need to talk. Ludwig says if Johann is coming to Vienna, he should just come to Baden instead. He’s not in Döbling at all any more.

Meanwhile, he is hard at work on the preparations for the premiere at the Theater in the Josephstadt on October 3, which makes it difficult to get in his 1 and 1/2 hours in the baths every day. In the meantime he has written a new choir with dances and a soloist [Wo sich die Pulse, WoO 98]. If his health allows, he will write another overture. [He did not.]

Karl, who has been staying with Uncle Ludwig in Baden, is taking his uncle’s dictation and in a postscript adds, “I, too, sincerely wish that you would come to Baden while I am still here with my dear uncle. We would certainly be quite happy.”

Brandenburg Letter 1497; Anderson Letter 1101. The original is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 14, and it can be seen here:

https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5437336984748032/scan/0