BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, April 8, 1824

Conversation Book 61 picks up again today, with a book probably missing between 60 and 61, which would have covered April 2 through April 7, 1824. Given that the Akademie benefit concert was as of April 1 probably back on again, there would have been much communication in that missing book regarding the copying and proofreading of parts, arrangements for participants, deciding on the location and date of the concert, and how many there should be in all. The loss of that book is thus most unfortunate for our story.

Conversation Book 61 consists of 36 leaves, all of which contain writing. It covers roughly a week of time. Schindler with ink has later identified that it comes from the time of the Akademie of 1824.

Beethoven, in the morning in between proofreading, makes a list:

Staudenheim [Beethoven’s regular physician, Dr. Jacob Staudenheim]
Aufsatz [Essay. From later context, this almost certainly relates to an essay that Karl needs for his studies, though as editor Theodore Albrecht points out, Schindler elsewhere also refers to the Petition as an Aufsatz.]
Pencil Sattler’s [shop for a red pencil, for corrections]
Meier, 2 fl. C.M. [The subscription price for the Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller at Jacob Mayer & Co. bookshop, for Karl]
+Pens
+Cotton
+Notification to the landlord [Notice would need to be given by April 24, St. George’s Day, in order to vacate his apartment by September 29 (Michaelmas). St. George’s Day, or Georgi, was celebrated on April 24 in Catholic Vienna; in Protestant areas it was celebrated on April 23.]
If they consider it necessary, we shall do it….
+Blotting sand

Nephew Karl comes in the late morning or early afternoon. He’d like to go buy the essay right after dinner. The essay can’t cost much. Then they can go together to Piringer’s Concert spirituel after Beethoven visits his doctor, who lives very near the Landständischer Saal where the concert is being held.

Karl warns that a great deal of fuss will be made about his uncle. Ludwig decides not to go to the concert after all, but they can meet in front of the building where Dr. Staudenheim lives afterwards.

Karl asks whether unpaid assistant Anton Schindler had been there today. He has not.

During dinner, Ludwig makes a note that he should write a canon, varied with an easy song, in honor of Staudenheim. Karl offers his uncle some salad. [Ludwig may be visiting the doctor about his recurrent stomach distress.] Karl thinks that the doctor will prescribe something for his uncle.

Talk turns to plans for the summer. Karl thinks Hetzendorf again would be fine, or even the nearby village of Penzing.

After dinner, they plan their itinerary. Karl mentions that as soon as the Ninth Symphony is sent to London [it had been commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society], it will be copied again on fine vellum paper and with calligraphic lettering, and dedicated and sent to the King of France [presumably as thanks for the gold medal awarded a few days earlier.]

Before they leave, a housekeeper applicant shows up, probably around 2 p.m. She says she can cook what Beethoven requires very well.

Karl has heard word [perhaps from publisher Steiner] that Ludwig will be receiving letters soon from Amsterdam and Berlin asking for an opera. That would be very desirable just now. Soprano Henriette Sontag and alto Caroline Unger will be leaving Vienna on tour in May of 1825, later than Unger had expected.

Karl notes that this year they did not give one single new Italian opera, and the opera house is empty. [Considering Uncle Ludwig’s low opinions of Italian opera, he probably considered that just as well.]

Karl leaves for the Concert spirituel. If Ludwig goes to visit Dr. Staudenheim as planned, there is no record of it in this conversation book. They probably used whatever paper was handy in the doctor’s offices, since others [like Schindler] often looked at what others had written.

The Concert spirituel includes parts of two works by Beethoven. The concert opens with Haydn’s Military Symphony [#100 in G major], which is followed by the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis from Beethoven’s Mass in C, op.86. The Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.30 (May 30, 1824) at 117 reports that, “The small solos included were sung appropriately for the dignity of the subject matter.” The first finale from the 1823 oddball musical drama Ahasuerus [Xerxes] by Ignaz von Seyfried, comprised of arrangements of Mozart chamber works, had to be repeated.

The program continued with Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont op.84, Der Sturm chorus by Haydn, Hob. XXIVa/8, and the fugue from the cantata “Heiliger! sieh gnädig” by Mozart [no longer believed to actually be by Mozart, catalogued as Köchel Anhang 124]. “On this occasion, the execution of all of the musical works was particularly successful. The numerous art-loving audience gave their approval to this undertaking, which had, as it were, risen from its ashes and was above all praise.”

In the late afternoon, after the Concert spirituel concludes, Schindler comes by Beethoven’s apartment and he says that violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh may still come today. In fact, the next entry in the book is by Schuppanzigh. He heard that the Censor will not allow the words “Credo” and “Agnus Dei” to appear on the Theater’s poster.

Schindler thinks this is ridiculous; the French have allowed such things since 1809. They agree that Beethoven should write to Wilhelm Vogel, the general secretary of the Theater an der Wien, saying that he agrees to the conditions set out, and have the concert on April 22. [This date is still only 2 weeks away, and the copying and proofreading are still far from finished, so being in a position to have the concert then is highly optimistic. But Schindler and Schuppanzigh both seem to be under the impression that the Theater an der Wien will be the site of the concert, even if Beethoven would still prefer the large Redoutensaal.]

Schuppanzigh suggests that Beethoven really must also write a note to the conductor at the Kärntnertor Theater, Michael Umlauf, who they plan to conduct the Akademie. He is prepared to do whatever is necessary for Beethoven. Schindler chimes in that Ignaz von Seyfried, the Kapellmeister at the Theater an der Wien, is in poor health so he won’t object to being replaced as conductor by Umlauf.

Schuppanzigh warns that they must tread carefully with Louis Antoine Duport, the manager of the Kärntnertor Theater, “because he can make things hellacious for us.”

Schindler asks who is preferred for the dedication of the Symphony: Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries, or the King of France? [Schindler later wrote in Prussia in place of France.] Beethoven is thinking Louis XVIII, in recognition of the gold medal, which he treasures. Schindler agrees that this would serve as proof of Beethoven’s gratitude. “No better occasion could have offered itself than this one for the purpose above.”

Schindler notes that Ignaz Moscheles arranged for the Choral Fantasy, op.80, to be translated into French, and it was performed in public. [The work was given under the title L’hommage à l’harmonie, at the theater of the Royal Academy of Music in Paris on February 25, 1822.] Schindler has seen a flyer for the concert.

Beethoven makes an incautious remark, and Schindler says that “we don’t want to say anything to anybody about this, nor to your brother, if you believe it.”

Conversation Book 61, 1r-5v.

Sometime around today or tomorrow, Beethoven writes a short undated note to copyist Peter Gläser. He must have the quartet for the Finale of the Ninth Symphony no later than next week Wednesday. [It is unclear whether Beethoven here means the vocal quartet, or the string parts.] It is a matter of the utmost urgency, since he has received nothing from Gläser for two days.

Brandenburg Letter 1811; Anderson Letter 1338. The letter is lost, but it was reproduced in a 1926 auction catalog for J.A. Stargardt, Nr. 264, Autographen, p.69, lot nr. 591.

Prince Nikolai Galitzin writes to Beethoven today about the premiere yesterday of the Missa Solemnis. “I hasten to give you, Sir, news of the execution of your sublime masterpiece which we made known to the public the day before yesterday [The letter is dated April 8, and the premiere was April 7, so there is a discrepancy here. Galitzin may have expected to mail this letter tomorrow, or he may simply have misdated the letter.] For several months, my impatience to hear this music, the beauties of which I had glimpsed in the score, has been extreme. The effect that this music had on the public was inexplicable, and I am not afraid to exaggerate that for my part I have never heard anything so sublime. Not even the masterpieces of Mozart, with their eternal beauties, gave me the same sensations that you gave me, Sir, through the Kyrie and the Gloria of your Mass. The learned harmony and touching melody of the Benedictus transports the soul to a truly blissful abode.”

“Finally, this entire work is a treasure of beauty. We can say that your genius has anticipated the centuries and that there are perhaps no listeners today enlightened enough to savor all the beauty of your music, but it is posterity that will pay homage and which will bless your memory, much better than your contemporaries are able to do. Prince Radziwill, who, as you know, is a great music lover, arrived a few days ago from Berlin and attended the performance of your Mass, which he did not yet know. He was delighted by it, just like me, and as were all the assistants.”

“I hope that your health recovers and that you will give us several more productions of your sublime genius. Forgive me for the trouble I often cause you with my letters, but this is the sincere tribute of one of your most great admirers.”

Brandenburg Letter 1807; Albrecht Letter 355. The original is held by Vienna Beethoven Society.