BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, July 1, 1824
Beethoven appears to still be in Vienna instead of his country place in Penzing. He may have remained there to see his doctor tomorrow.
At a coffee house this afternoon, Beethoven reads the newspapers and makes a note that the Duke de la Chatre has been granted a release from duties as the French High Chamberlain as requested due to illness. His replacement is Count Carl v. Damas. [Beethoven still needs to send a letter of thanks to the High Chamberlain for the gold medal earlier this year. Johann had recommended he do so on May 29. The replacement is in the news of today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.148) at 621.]
Beethoven also makes note of the July statutory prices for beef at 7 kr. C.M. or 17 1/2 kr. W.W. per pound. Wiener Zeitung at 622.
Finally, he copies parts of an advertisement in the Intelligenzblatt supplement to today’s Wiener Zeitung for the Salm Iron Ware Vienna store at 818 Riemerstraße, for goods manufactured at Blansko in Moravia. Beethoven is particularly interested in the ovens “in Professor Meissner’s style” as well as economical ovens in many styles.
Conversation Book 72, 24v-25r.
The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalilsche Zeitung in its review of the first Akademie concert, which is found in Nr.27 (July 1, 1824) at 437-442, was even more glowing than the others. “Where am I supposed to find the words to report to my readers about these gigantic works?” The writer notes that the vocalists were not ready; three rehearsals for such extraordinary difficulties is insufficient. “And yet the impression was indescribably great and wonderful, the applause enthusiastic, which was paid with all the heart to the sublime master, whose inexhaustible genius opened up a new world, revealed never-heard, never-published miraculous secrets of the sacred art!”
The Overture to Consecration of the House “is indisputably one of Beethoven’s most perfect works: anyone who is even somewhat familiar with his numerous works knows what that means….This is how Handel would have written, if the orchestral wealth of our time had been at his disposal, and only a spirit closely related to his could succeed in following in the footsteps of this giant.”
“The three hymns are principal movements from the composer’s latest Mass, of which he has already sent copies to several noble patrons, and for which the King of France recently presented him with a precious gold medal, struck exclusively in his honor.”
The Kyrie was felt to be solemn and truly religious, but “on the whole resembles less a childishly pious prayer song, than the wistful pleas of a contrite people worshiping in the dust.” The Credo is “indeed unusual and highly original.” The key and time signatures are changed perhaps a little too often….The whole thing ends quietly, with an equally long, reverberating aftermath from the concert orchestra. “If it were permissible to speak of the effect of a church composition, namely in the sense in which a tone poem exercises its power over our minds, then it cannot be denied that it is precisely the hesitant, anxiously awaited conclusion that weakens the earlier impressions, because there is no conceivable reason for this other than the will to follow one’s own path.”
“The character of the Agnus Dei (B minor) is anxious melancholy and deep sadness. The strange use of four French horns produces a very peculiar effect here. With the Dona comes a cozy Allegretto in D major, 6/8, which is spun out with beautiful imitations until suddenly the movement turns to B-flat major. The timpani, like a distant thunder, begins to whirl on the dominant; the solo Soprano, without strict rhythm, intones again recitative-like: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, which call the trumpets answer with a quiet Intrada in B-flat, until finally the full choir breaks out into the fearsomely terrible: Miserere nobis. What the composer actually intended with this phrase is difficult to decipher. One is just as unlikely to find a sufficient reason why the instrumental movement that follows, a fugal Presto in 2/4, was included here, while all the singing voices are silent, and only return again effectively with the recapitulation of the Dona, the keystone of the whole. One could piously wish for everything to be a little more compact and less fragmented.”
As for the Symphony, it “can compete fearlessly with its eight siblings. It will certainly not be obscured by any of the others. Only its originality bears witness of its father; everything else is new and never before heard.” The first movement cannot be described, and would only provide an inadequate view. In the Scherzo, the most exuberant mischief plays a wicked game, and the brilliant march in the major key is an extremely charming alternative. “Anyone who starts from the principle that no more delicious Andante may be found than that of the Seventh Symphony should listen to this one (in B-flat) and they will at least begin to waver in their assertion. What heavenly song; how surprising the twists and combinations of motifs; what artistic and tasteful execution…what majesty of expression and magnificent simplicity. The master expects much, very much, almost beyond human ability from his instrumentalists. But it produces such magical effects that others, who may have the same means but lack Promethean rays of fire, will struggle forever without success!”
“The finale (D minor) announces itself like a devastating thunderclap with the glaring minor ninth over the dominant chord. Like a potpourri, all of the previously heard main themes are presented to us again, briefly, in colorful order, as if picked out of a mirror. The double basses hum a recitative that sounds like the question: ‘What should happen now?’ and answer themselves with a quietly undulating motif in the major key, from which an all-powerful crescendo develops in measured gradations through the gradual joining of all the instruments in wonderful bonds, without Rossini-like basses and thirds. But when finally, after a request from the solo bass, the full choir also sings the song of joy in majestic splendor, the joyful heart opens wide to the bliss of rapturous enjoyment, and thousands of throats shout: ‘Hail! Hail! Hail! to the divine art of music! Praise! Praise! and thanks to your most worthy high priest!‘”
The reviewer “now sits at the writing desk, cooled down, but this moment will remain unforgettable for him. Art and truth achieve their most brilliant triumph here, and one could rightly say: Non plus ultra!”
The writer mentions the disappointing financial return from the concert, blaming it on the reserved subscription boxes and blocked seats that were not permitted to be cancelled. Only 2200 fl. W.W. were earned, and after expenses that left a mere 300 florins W.W. or 120 florins in silver.
“Beethoven is currently composing Grillparzer’s opera Melusine and a large cantata written by Bernard. It is not known how far both works have progressed, as it is one of the artist’s peculiarities not to speak of his work.” [Of course, neither composition was even seriously started.]
Today is the beginning of a three-day music festival in honor of the centennial of poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s birth on July 2, held in his hometown of Quedlinburg [today in Saxony-Anhalt], under the direction of Carl Maria von Weber. The first concert, held at the castle church, features Beethoven’s Sinfonia eroica. The review in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.30 (July 22, 1824) at 478-479, notes that the symphony was “quite well executed, but even more precision and a purer oboe would certainly have been desirable.”
[The church where the first concert was held would later take on sinister connotations as the resting place of Henry the Fowler, considered by Heinrich Himmler to be the first German king. Himmler also believed himself to be Henry’s reincarnation. Thus there were regular cultish Nazi pilgrimages to the church on July 2nd, which was also the anniversary of the king’s death, from 1936 to 1944, while the local crematorium was kept busy burning the victims of the concentration camps. To tie all this together in a seamless web, Klopstock had intended to write an epic poem based on Henry the Fowler, but he abandoned that plan after reading Milton’s Paradise Lost. Henry the Fowler also may be familiar to our readers as bearing the unique distinction of being a character in both Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin and the video game Return to Castle Wolfenstein.]