BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, November 4, 1824

Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (1802-1878) today in the early evening marries Princess Sophie of Bavaria at the Augustiner Church in Vienna. [Sophie’s half-sister Caroline Augusta was also Franz Karl’s stepmother, having married his father in 1816.] The wedding ceremony is conducted by His Imperial Highness and Eminence Archduke Rudolph, Cardinal and Archbishop of Olmütz, Beethoven’s patron. Archduke Rudolph was also Franz Karl’s uncle. After the ceremony, the Te Deum is sung, and the usual cannon and infantry salvos are fired.

At the wedding feast afterwards in the large Redoutensaal, and at the Kärntnertor Theater on the next evening, there are a number of musical selections, including vocal performances. Among them was a “beautiful terzet by Beethoven” sung by soprano Caroline Unger, tenor Domenico Donzelli and bass Antonio Ambrogi. Unger had of course sung the premiere of the 9th Symphony in the two May 1824 Akademie concerts, while Donzelli had sung the terzet Tremate, empi, tremate, op.116, at the second Akademie. That also was the trio performed as part of the wedding celebrations. Wiener Theater-Zeitung (Nr.136) November 11, 1824 at 543; Wiener Zeitung (Nr.256) of November 6 at 1077.