BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday March 11, 1824 (approximately)

Paul Maschek and his assistants continue working to generate parts from the Missa Solemnis for the upcoming Akademie concert, but today they are working from Maschek’s home rather than Beethoven’s apartment. Beethoven proofreads the previous day’s work. It is slow and tedious work, but quite necessary. This arrangement of the copyists working at Masheck’s home lasts only one day, as the assistants argue that it would be more efficient for them to work from their own homes, rather than come to Maschek’s. He reluctantly agrees to keep his skilled workers happy, but does not tell Beethoven about the change of plans. Beethoven sends his maid daily to Maschek’s apartment to drop off the choral parts that he has proofread so far, so they can be lithographed, and to pick up the newly-written pages. The vocal solo parts probably do not take long, and work begins on the parts for the strings.

Beethoven makes note of the expenses from his shopping trip this afternoon:

Superfine flour 1 fl. 18 kr.
Baking flour 1 fl. 48 kr.
Semolina 1 fl. 44 kr.

Conversation Book 59, 7r. Finding the rest of this page blank years later, Anton Schindler added fraudulent entries to fill the page, talking about Count Franz von Brunsvik and his wife, and possible trips to Hungary and England for Beethoven.

Prince Nikolai Galitzin writes to Beethoven today from St. Petersburg, Russia. He is concerned that he has not heard from Beethoven in some time. [The composer’s last letter was dated December 13, 1823.] He fears Beethoven’s health has turned and that has deprived him of the promised works. He knows that foreign requests are surely a burden, but Galitzin would like to know when he can expect the three string quartets he commissioned a year ago, which he waits for so impatiently. If Beethoven is in need of money, the Prince tells him he can draw upon Stieglitz & Co. in St. Petersburg for whatever he would like.

The time is approaching for the performance of the Missa Solemnis, Galitzin writes. [The original plan had been to perform the work before Lent, in late February or early March.] It ended up being delayed in order to allow the singers to learn their parts well, since they are not easy. They plan on having ten rehearsals in order to do the sublimity of the piece justice. Thus far they have only had one orchestral rehearsal, without the chorus, in order to check over the copied parts. [Beethoven had sent a full score of the Mass, and Galitzin had parts copied out from it.] There were so many errors in the parts that they were constantly stopping to correct them, and many omissions as well. The performance has as a result been rescheduled for April 7 [March 26 on the Greek Orthodox calendar], to be held for the benefit of musicians’ widows.

Galitzin hopes for a reply and says he is the most sincere and zealous of Beethoven’s admirers. In a postscript, Galitzin adds that he has never been able to find a copy of the Triple Concerto, op.56. All he has of it is a four-hand piano arrangement in the form of a polonaise based on the concerto [arranged by August Eberhard Müller, whose wife Elisbeth Catharina played the piano part in the first public performance of the concerto in February 1808 in Leipzig.] He asks that Beethoven send that concerto if he can.

Brandenburg Letter 1789; Albrecht Letter 346. The letter’s whereabouts are unknown today. The text, found in TDR V, p.558f, is derived from the copy made by Thayer, when it was in the possession of Nephew Karl’s widow.

Beethoven also writes at Johann’s insistence, probably around today, an undated letter to Count Moritz von Dietrichstein, telling him that he would like to hold a musical Akademie in the Great Redoutensaal in the evening of April 8th. He says that Louis Antoine Duport [who manages both the Kärntnertor Theater and the Redoutensaal] is fine with the idea. Beethoven apologizes for the delay in getting the Mass written for the Emperor. [That promised Mass will remain nothing more than a handful of sketches.]

Brandenburg Letter 1791; Anderson Letter 1273. The letter is also not known to exist, but its text is derived from a copy that was printed in Anton Schlossar, Unbekannte Briefe Beethovens in Die Musik 9 (1909/10), p.40 (Nr.8).

Schindler continues to procrastinate about inviting Henriette Sontag and Caroline Unger to dinner on Sunday with Beethoven, as he had been instructed to do on Tuesday afternoon.