BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, June 1, 1826

Nephew Karl visits Uncle Ludwig today. He gives Ludwig at least two pair of gloves from Brother Johann. One pair cannot be cleaned at home; the other gloves can be.

Karl observes that the maid washed her feet in the water bucket, and the kettle is leaking. Uncle Ludwig asks why she washed her feet in the bucket; Karl answers she had an ulcer or something on her foot. Yesterday evening the housekeeper almost got hit by the maid because she had scolded her.

The ham for supper tonight looks good; the housekeeper bought a large one, because she wanted to serve ham with aspic tonight. Ludwig invites Karl to stay; Karl says he will if it won’t be too late.

“They do not cook anything magnificent, but there are so many small dishes that are very good and which can only be made by a woman who understands cooking. They are quite well seasoned.

Ludwig makes some remark about Karl’s future in business. Karl snaps, “That is nobody’s business. I have completed rhetoric, and will be accepted everywhere.” Ludwig changes the subject.

“The quartet was very much enjoyed.” [It is unclear what quartet Karl is referencing.]

It turns out that the aspic was ruined because the housekeeper could not get ice anywhere, which was essential for it. The hams from his Herr Brother [Joseph Fesel] are not bad at all. [Fesel, or Vesel, Brother Johann’s butcher brother-in-law, was married to Johann’s wife Therese’s sister, Katharina]

Karl mentions that at the Kärntnertor Theater they are going to perform the 1st act of Maestro Rossini’s opera Tancredi, then the next day, the 2nd act of the opera Tancredi. [The theater did this on June 2 and 4, before the ballet The Swiss Milk Maid by Adalbert Gyrowetz.] At the Burgtheater, they could perform good things every day; there are enough of them.

Today there is illumination in Laxenburg. [On June 1, the Emperor and Empress were going to make an excursion from Vienna to Laxenburg. However, it ended up being postponed to June 13.]

Karl has an anecdote about royals. “The present King of Bavaria [Ludwig I] has the habit of going around dressed as the famous Haroun al-Raschid of Baghdad. One morning he went like that to the market place where the town hall is; a lot of journeymen were gathered there; none of them knew the King. He asked what they were doing there. They complained that they had to wait so long for the gentleman who was to issue their passports. The King went into the courtroom, where there was no one even though it was already time for court. He let all the journeymen come in and issued a passport for every one of them; however, at the bottom he wrote: ‘Ludwig in the absence of his clerk.’ Several journeymen are said to have come here with such a passport.” [Karl may have heard this story from unpaid assistant Karl Holz; Holz will tell Ludwig the same story later this month.]

Uncle Ludwig wonders if he could get a gold medal from King Ludwig of Bavaria. Karl responds, “I do not think a medal could raise you up more than you already are. The court physician Stifft has about 10 medals, and no one has given him a thought for 20 years.” It might not do any harm abroad, he concedes.

Uncle Ludwig either offers Karl wine, or accuses him of drinking; Karl answers “I do not drink.”

Violinist Joseph Böhm comes up. Karl says he has no education at all. [When Böhm wrote in the conversation book, he wrote phonetically and was barely literate.]

Uncle Ludwig mentions he forgot to invite Holz to dinner. Karl jokes that “Holz is invited to dinner 365 days a year; and if he has not been invited, he’ll invite himself.” Uncle Ludwig thought that if he were coming he would have been there by now. Karl doesn’t think that Holz takes eating early very seriously.

Karl says he must go home now, because he has to get up very early tomorrow morning [June 2]. “There are exams every day, and one must be prepared. I ask you to think about the tutor one of these days.”

Conversation Book 111, 15r-18v. This concludes Conversation Book 111.

At some point, likely after Karl leaves, the new housekeeper [probably Elise Seidl] stops by today and talks with the departing housekeeper or maid. Seidl writes, “She says that if she had had someone who could have helped her, she would not have left.” So far as her master is concerned, Seidl makes everything herself, and the kitchen maid only has to do the hardest labor. “If I have a person who I can set to work, then I’ll take care of everything that’s important.”

Beethoven tells her that there will need to be shopping done. Seidl says that she’ll try to come back early tomorrow morning then. “I am nothing less [than] practical, but I must insist that the maid is neat and tidy”. Seidl repeats that she will come tomorrow.

Conversation Book 110, 49r-50v.

The June 1826 issue of The Harmonicon (Nr.XLII) at 118 includes a review of Three Grand Fantasias, potpourris on favorite theme, for the pianoforte by Beethoven’s former pupil, Carl Czerny. The reviewer approves of the first two of the set. The first of these begins with an Allegro in A, followed by a vivace in C, on an unidentified subject by Beethoven.