BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, August 14, 1823 (approximately)

There are a number of undated sets of notes in Conversation Book 39 that probably were written between today and Monday, August 18. Beethoven notes that he had to pay 4 kr. C.M. customs in Erddorf [Beethoven means Neudorf, a rest stop for passengers leaving Vienna] for something unidentified he brought along with him. He also copies out an advertisement from the Wiener Zeitung at 346 for an instructional text on declamatory speaking, Die neue Schauspielerschule [The New Actor’s School] by Antonio Francesco Riccoboni (1707-1772).

The same issue of the Wiener Zeitung Intelligenzblatt at 337 includes ads for a carpeted set of rooms above a shop on the Stephansplatz, which Beethoven copies. He may be reconsidering his already agreed-upon rental for the fall. He also notes an ad for the book Baden in Nieder-Österreich [Baden in Lower Austria] by Dr. J.N. Beck, M.D. Apparently finding this book in a local shop, he thumbs through it and notes down its advice that it is best to avoid the apartments in the Cloister and Hahn House in Baden. He also notes Archduke Anton [Rudolph’s brother, who Beethoven was trying to convince to subscribe to the Missa Solemnis] has a summer palace in Baden.

Conversation Book 39, 1r-3r.

A concert is held today by the students of the Vienna Music Conservatory. The article in the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung notes the presence of Archduke Rudolph, as Protector of the music association, so he seems to have returned to Vienna from Baden at some point.