BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, November 24, 1825 (approximately)

Beethoven writes an undated letter to Nephew Karl, probably today. “The Frau Schlemmer receives, or has received, her money through our housekeeper.” [This is presumably the money for Karl’s room and board.]
“Some letters need to be written tomorrow. Let me know what time is best for you.— Your uncle.”
“My handkerchief stayed with you.”

Brandenburg Letter 2091; Anderson Letter 1447. The original letter is held in Washington D.C.at the Library of Congress (ML96.W56441 Nr.16.) Sieghard Brandenburg suggested that this letter probably was written today since it appears to relate to the letters to publishers B. Schott’s Sons and C.F. Peters, which are written tomorrow by Nephew Karl. Those are the only surviving letters to publishers in Nephew Karl’s hand from this time period that are dated on the same day.

Later tonight, Beethoven gets into an argument with the new housekeeper, Theresia Adelmann, apparently about her cooking. When he goes out for a walk in the evening, she runs away and goes into hiding, fearing Beethoven’s wrath.

The Wiener Theater-Zeitung for November 24, 1825 (Nr.141) at 580 contains the following notice: “Herr Schuppanzigh now presents between his quartets, which he gives on Sunday afternoons at the Sign of the Red Hedgehog, and for which one can obtain tickets at Steiner’s Art and Music Shop, classical piano trios, which one hears often in private concerts, but which are seldom heard otherwise. Professor Würfel [Wilhelm Würfel (1790-1832), professor at the Warsaw Conservatory from 1815-1824 and a friend of the Chopin family] has already played a Beethoven piece, in which he particularly excelled in the performance of the Adagio. Schuppanzigh intends to alternate the best piano players wherever possible, in order to entertain his audience in the most interesting of ways.”