BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, December 29, 1825
This afternoon, Beethoven reads the newspapers in a coffeehouse. He makes a note regarding the income forthcoming from his bank shares.
He meets with Nephew Karl, possibly still at the coffeehouse. Karl asks how things are going with the household affairs. Karl reminds his uncle that they need to buy some New Year’s greetings cards on Saturday; he has to send them to his professors. Karl wants to be on the corner of the Kärntnerstrasse, at Samuel Biedermann’s, to deliver the score of the quartet op.132 for Schlesinger in Paris. But they have to do it before 9 a.m., because he has to be at the collection of commodities at the Polytechnic Institute then, as he does every Saturday. Karl will go to Biedermann on Saturday, and then on Sunday he will make the rounds of his professors to deliver his New Year’s greetings.
Conversation Book 100, 26v-27r.
In Koblenz, Frau Eleonore Wegeler writes to Beethoven, as her husband Franz had done yesterday; both letters will be delivered by Franz Joseph Ries when he comes to Vienna soon. Curiously, she addresses Beethoven with the formal “Sie,” despite being life-long friends. She asks Beethoven whether he does not want to see the Rheinland again, and that he would be a most welcome guest at any time and any hour. Their daughter would be thrilled to meet him. Apparently she knows everything about their youth in Bonn, about their quarrels and reconciliations. “Unfortunately the girl has no musical talent, but through great diligence and perseverance she has progressed so far that she can play your sonatas, variations, and the like, and since music remains the greatest relaxation for Wegeler, she has given him many hours with them. Julius has musical talent, but has neglected it until now; just in the last half year he has been learning the violoncello with pleasure and joy. Since he has a good teacher in Berlin, I definitely believe he will continue to learn.” Franz himself takes great pleasure in playing the themes of Beethoven’s sets of variations, preferring the old ones but also practicing the newer ones patiently. “Your Opferlied is his absolute favorite. He never comes into the living room without going to the piano.”
“From this, dear Beethoven, you can see how you still live among us in these lasting memories. Just tell us once that this means something to you, and that you haven’t completely forgotten us either. If it were not often so difficult to satisfy our fondest wishes, we would already have visited my brother in Vienna, and would certainly have considered it a pleasure to see you—but such a trip is not possible now, especially since our son is in Berlin.”
Brandenburg Letter 2101; Albrecht Letter 423. Translation by Theodore Albrecht. This letter, signed “Ele. Wegeler,” is also held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, NE 56, and can be seen here:
https://www.beethoven.de/de/media/view/5073055038570496/scan/0
In today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.296), at 1252, Sauer & Leidesdorf advertises the newly published collection of little dances self-published as a fundraiser by disabled actor Carl Friedrich Müller, the second volume of popular music for 1825, “containing 50 new waltzes with coda, including a melody on an ode theme for a traditional flute, reverently dedicated to her Imperial Highness the Most Honorable Archduchess Sophie of Austria, née Royal Princess of Bavaria, by editor C.F. Müller.” The composers include Beethoven, who contributes the Waltz WoO 85; Leopoldine Blahetka; Carl Czerny; Johann Nepomuk Hummel; Conradin Kreutzer; Franz Schubert; Ignaz von Seyfried; Wilhelm Würfel; and many others.
“The high acclaim which the first volume of this collection of waltzes by various composers received, prompted the editors, in accordance with the general public, to present this year as well a similar blossoming collection from the musical Hesperides grove of the most esteemed composers to the art-loving public.”
“May the august name that this collection bears on its brow [as the dedicatee] be the surest guarantee that no meaningless phenomenon enters life here, which the listing of the names of the most important composers of the region, whose circle is headed by the Prince of the Region of Art, our brilliant Beethoven, already bears without further recommendation. Moreover, those who examined last year’s collection will note that the editors sought to make this work even more interesting by the inclusion of important composers from at home and abroad, who were missing from the previous collection.” The price is 4 florins W.W.
Furthermore, Müller offers a collection of Minuets, Ecossaises, Quadrilles, Cotillons and Galops, dedicated to Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria, née Princess of Wurttemburg. Included in this collection is the Ecossaise WoO 86 by Beethoven, as well as works by Gyrowetz, Leidesdorf, Léon de Saint-Lubin, Leopoldine Blahetka, Carl Czerny, Hummel, Kreutzer, Seyfried, Schubert and others.
“In contrast to the tea dances common today, where one only wishes to perform music through amateurs with the use of a grand piano, there is a more general need to see all these social dances combined in a single collection, with which to entertain social circles.”
“The publisher believes that this need has now been met, and, as with the volume of Waltzes, the dedication which Her Imperial Highness has deigned to accept may indeed be regarded as the best recommendation, but the editor believes that since this collection is the first of its kind, he can count on the support of the musical public, for whom he strove to demonstrate his respect by publishing this volume.”
“Copies of the first annual volume under the title ‘Musical Gift for the Year 1825,’ which contained 40 waltzes from the most esteemed local artists, are also available for 3 florins W.W.”