BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, April 29, 1824
Things are finally ready for the long-anticipated Akademie concert to get under way. Ignaz Schuppanzigh may hold a rehearsal for the upcoming Akademie with the leaders of the string sections today, as was planned on April 27th. However, if he does, Beethoven does not attend personally.
Beethoven works at drafting a letter complaining about the publication of the Petition, as Schindler had requested yesterday, to deflect suspicion that Beethoven himself was behind it. “Since this has taken such a turn, however, I can no longer derive pleasure from it. What an abomination, to attribute such a thing to me. This whole business disgusts me, and I am hardly in a position to direct even a few words against persons of such high rank as well as such noble spirit. No critic can boast of a letter from me; never have I…”
Beethoven doesn’t get any further before unpaid assistant Anton Schindler shows up. He has spoken to the tailor landlord, Johann Hörr, about the summer apartment, and he will probably agree to come down about 175 florins. Hörr will himself come later. Schindler warns that Beethoven should consider though whether it is better to pay a bit more in rent in Penzing than to have the unforeseen expenses as happened last year in Hetzendorf. There, he would have a restaurant and coffee house nearby, good air, and wouldn’t need to pay for a coach [the distance being walkable]. For an apartment in Hietzing or Penzing, Beethoven could rent the furniture from the carpenter for the summer, and Beethoven need not buy anything. Beethoven has already arranged to buy a large quantity of bedding. Schindler says that if he does, he will have enough bedding to last him several years.
Schindler understands Herr Enk is coming to visit Nephew Karl, and asks who he is. Enk is attending lectures in Philology along with Karl at the University.
Beethoven shows Schindler his proposed letter about the Petition, and suggests it be published in the Wiener Zeitung. Schindler thinks not; the Zeitung might not take essays of that sort. Perhaps it should be dropped until after the Akademie. But Bäuerle and Kanne, who both published it, should be given no rest, and Beethoven can thunder at them after the concert.
Schindler suggests that alto Caroline Unger and soprano Henriette Unger might like to have a little rehearsal at the piano with conductor Michael Umlauf beforehand.
Schindler joins Ludwig and Karl at a restaurant, where they have veal. Schindler excuses himself, and Karl confides to his uncle that Schindler is suffering again from hemorrhoids. On his return, Schindler suggests the veal would be better with a gravy, or a salad in addition.
Returning to the topic of the apartment for the summer, Hörr will only give this significant discount to Beethoven. It includes use of the attic, cellar and wood bin. Hörr is also tailor to Beethoven’s patron, Archduke Rudolph, so he is pleased to have the honor of Beethoven in his house, and that the Archduke will come to his house. He has worked there 23 years.
Nephew Karl suggests that he would still like to see Dr. Staudenheim [Karl calls him Staudenheimer] today, since he has time to do so.
Later in the day, Hörr meets with Ludwig and Schindler at a tavern, possibly Zum goldenen Steg. Hörr believes that the copper engraving made by Blasius Höfel in 1814 is a very good likeness. [The editors note that it was considered the most faithful likeness of Beethoven by his contemporaries, and Beethoven himself made gifts of the portrait often.]
Hörr mentions that he often heard Beethoven play his Horn Sonata at the Archduke’s. Hörr asks what the name of the hornist was. [During Beethoven’s association with the Archduke, that would most likely be either Friedrich Hradetzky (c.1769-1846) or Friedrich Starke (1774-1839).] Hörr recalls seeing the large pile of music composed by Beethoven at Rudolph’s. They agree that Beethoven will rent the place, for 180 florins for the summer [a discount of more than 50%.] “I am so very pleased that the great v Beethoven is renting my apartment,” says Hörr.
Conversation Book 63, 46r-49v. This concludes Conversation Book 63. The discussion continues without interruption in Conversation Book 64, which is comprised of 31 leaves and covers the remainder of today and the next four days. The leaves that today are numbered 13-15 are bound out of order, and should come at the start of the book.
Beethoven and Schindler next go to a shop, possibly Steiner’s music shop. Schindler reports that the money from England has been remitted through Lazzar Goldstein [the employer of Franz Kirchhoffer, who is the go-between for Beethoven and Ferdinand Ries in London]. He gets no particular profit if he pays it out punctually, so they may haggle about the exchange rate for many months.
The discussion turns back to the gossip that Beethoven was behind the publication of the Petition. Schindler says, trying to ingratiate himself with Beethoven, “I just cannot listen when you are unreasonably charged with things that are not true and resist everyone with all my might, whether he is right or not; I know what I’m doing.”
Schindler is off to see Duport, and he will insist on a final word about the Akademie. Beethoven starts drafting the letter about the Petition again: “Unassuming as I am, every defeat of life is offensive to me, and I hardly comprehend how someone, for my sake, or really how someone, without regard for the delicacy of the situation inquired about it at Herr B[äuerle’s]…. [These two fragments of a draft are catalogued as Brandenburg Letter 1828.]
Nephew Karl catches up with his uncle, but needs to find a bathroom. “Good fellow! A great urge has suddenly come upon me. I am hurrying home to satisfy it and will then come immediately to the beer house.”
Karl rejoins Ludwig at a beer house. He mentions that Schuppanzigh’s concert in the Augarten on the morning of May 1 will include Uncle Ludwig’s Symphony Nr.5 in C minor.
Karl fills in his uncle about Anton Joseph Stein, professor of Latin Literature and Greek Philology at the University of Vienna. He has a salary in his contract, which was not necessarily the case for all faculty members. [Karl seems to have paid him extra for his lessons.] There was nothing else to do if I didn’t want to lose everything that, in association with an educated person was useful and pleasant–of which, however, there was none with him. God knows what he does with the money.” Stein had been in Berlin and Hamburg for a number of years.
An unidentified person joins Ludwig and Karl. [Editor Theodore Albrecht suggests that it may have been actor Joseph Spitzeder (1795-1828), since he fits the biographical details mentioned here.] He regrets that he was not able to accompany Beethoven on the journey that several friends of Art had projected for him in the past. He’s not sure whether Beethoven even still remembers that after so long. [He may be referring to a projected tour of Europe with Johann Nepomuk Mälzel proposed on several occasions in the previous decade.]
Beethoven mentions that he has been thinking of taking a tour of England, where he is well appreciated. The writer mentions that on his last journey to Russia [in 1822], Johann Nepomuk Hummel made a net profit of 15,000 florins C.M. in the space of just four months. A Beethoven would earn just as much in that country, where there is both money and a feeling for Art, without having to do anything besides sit at the piano. He could effect the performance of his immortal works merely by his presence. “This is my sincerest belief–without flattery.” Beethoven mentions he’s not appreciated here in Vienna. “You are known everywhere better than here,” the writer agrees. The writer has to be going, as he is appearing on stage yet today, which robs him of keeping Beethoven company any longer. He wishes Beethoven a very pleasant evening and departs. Ludwig and Karl head for home.
Conversation Book 64, 13r-15v.
Beethoven supposedly writes an undated note to Schindler sometime around now, saying that “After six weeks of back-and-forth about the ticket prices, I am cooked, boiled and fried. What will become of the much-discussed concert if the ticket prices are not increased? What should I do after so much nonsense, after the copying has cost so much?”
Brandenburg Letter 1825; Anderson Letter 1281. The original is unknown [Anderson incorrectly reports that it is held by the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek]; the text is taken from Schindler’s biography of Beethoven (3rd ed., Münster 1860, vol. 2, p.69.) Sieghard Brandenburg points out that the word usage of the letter suggests it is not authentic. But if the letter is genuine, then it was probably written soon after news had been received on April 28th that the ticket prices could not be increased for the concert. It is also suspicious that Schindler, who meticulously kept every scrap of paper from Beethoven, did not include this letter in the sale of his Beethoven correspondence to the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. We agree with Brandenburg that this letter is a likely fraud, although Beethoven certainly may have expressed similar sentiments to Schindler.
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