BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, April 10, 1823

Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden today at last receives a copy of the score to Fidelio from Beethoven, so that crisis is averted. The opera will receive fourteen rehearsals before the opening on April 29th. Thayer/Forbes at 863.

Meanwhile, in Vienna Beethoven writes a cover letter to Weber forwarding the libretto to the opera, which has copied separately. He will send it with Barbara Holzmann tomorrow morning to be sent out, forgetting that the Dresden coach only leaves on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. The date of the letter is known from Weber’s diary but the letter itself is lost.

In Paris, Jacques Alexandre Bernard Law, the Marquis of Lauriston (1768-1828), Minister to the King and Royal Secretary of State, writes to Louis Charles Victor de Rique, Marquis de Caraman (1762-1839), since 1815 the French ambassador in Vienna, regarding the solicitation for a subscription to the Missa Solemnis. He reports that King Louis XVIII of France “would accept with pleasure the work of such a distinguished composer.” The score may be forwarded to the Duke de Blacas, and he will present it to the King. However, before a subscription may be agreed to, the King needs to know the amount to be paid. [From later discussions, it appears Schindler did not include mention of the standard 50-ducat fee in the solicitation letter for Louis XVIII, leaving it to the King’s generosity.]

Brandenburg Letter 1626. The original is lost, but a copy was kept by the von Breuning family. The text is derived from Stephan Ley, Beethoven als Freund der Familie Wegeler-v. Breuning, Bonn 1927, p.220f.

Sauer & Leidesdorf today advertise in the Wiener Zeitung at 330 the publication of Three Lieder by Schubert, op.20, for voice with piano, or in a separate edition, with guitar accompaniment. The three songs are Sei mir gegrüßt, on a text by Rückert (1822, today catalogued as D.741); Frühlingsglaube, on a text by Uhland (1822, D.686); and Hänflings Liebeswerbung, on a text by Johann Friedrich Kind (1817, D.552).

Frühlingsglaube, op.20/2, is here performed by Renée Fleming, soprano, and Christoph Eschenbach, piano:

The advertisement by Johann Cappi for Simon Sechter’s Four Fugues for Piano, op.5, dedicated to Beethoven, is repeated today on the same page.