BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, September 3, 1820

Conversation Book 16, leaf 45v

Reading yesterday’s Intelligenzblatt in a coffeehouse in Mödling, Beethoven notes down another possible apartment in the Ungargasse neighborhood.

At about this time, Beethoven learns that his Mödling landlord, Johann Speer, has inherited some property with a working vineyard. An employee handles the vineyard and lives on the ground floor of the house. Beethoven, thinking himself cagey, suggests to Speer that he has a friend who might be interested in the property.

Finished with the autograph draft of the Credo for the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven is working on the third and final movement of the piano sonata #30, op.109. Work proceeds rather expeditiously, with a continuity draft appearing after not very much sketching, and an autograph of the movement by the end of the month.

In the evening (or possibly the very early morning Monday) he heads back to Vienna to keep his promise to the Archduke.