BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, May 19, 1825

Finally starting to recover from his lengthy illness, Beethoven has begun work in earnest on the third and later movements of the op.132 string quartet in A minor.

He makes a note that the temperature at the Leopoldsbad (a little over half a kilometer from his rental house) is 26 1/2 to 27 degrees Reaumur [about 92 Fahrenheit.] He also makes a reminder to get 10 bottles of red wine and the large bottle in the cellar.

At a coffee shop in Baden this afternoon, Beethoven copies some advertisements from yesterday’s Wiener Zeitung. First is an advertisement for an apartment for the fall in the Landstrasse suburb at Ungargasse 345, near the brewery, which strikes his fancy. It is an apartment with four rooms, with kitchen and view of the surrounding garden.

Conversation Book 89, 12v.

Ludwig is quite interested and writes a letter about this apartment to Nephew Karl this afternoon, beginning by copying the advertisement. “Landstrasse Ungargasse Apartment No.345 next to the brewery, 4 rooms, kitchen, view of the surrounding gardens, to be inquired at the caretaker, also there should be several in the Hauptstrasse. Give the caretaker in the Ungargasse a florin to hold it for me until Saturday [May 21], when I will pick you up if the weather isn’t too bad. It will have the morning light, whether from Michaeli [September 29, the usual moving date in Vienna] or now. Should I come on Saturday, make sure that I find you. Your faithful” The letter is addressed to Karl at Schlemmer’s, Alleegasse 72, first floor [second floor American.]

Brandenburg Letter 1975; Anderson Letter 1376. The original is held at the Krakow Biblioteka Jagiellonska (Mus. ep. autogr. Beethoven 22).