BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, September 15, 1825

Roughly about now, Beethoven begins using the pocket sketchbook Autograph 9, Bundle 2. This is almost entirely devoted to work on the Grosse Fuge, which is still intended to be the finale to the op.130 quartet. Besides the fugue, there is an entry for the beginning of the fifth movement Cavatina to the quartet, plus a couple of canon drafts. This sketchbook of 35 leaves was another homemade assemblage, stitched together by Beethoven.

Karl runs errands for his uncle today, and apparently gets things straightened out at St. Marx’s Spital so that Holzmann can rejoin them. They take a private carriage to Vienna. As Karl will mention later, there is a third passenger who also takes the carriage.

Karl mentions that Sunday evening everyone was quite delighted by Uncle Ludwig’s improvising, “especially [flutist Johann] Sedlaczek, who spoke about it with great enthusiasm. [Publisher Maurice] Schlesinger considered it a special good fortune that this took place at his event. [Schlesinger hosted the first semi-public performance of the quartet op.132 on Sunday, September 11.] Karl continues, “As the Quartet was played, Frau Cibbini seemed to me like a worshiper of Bacchus, it pleased her so much.” Karl expects that Schlesinger will hold another farewell banquet; he spoke about doing that recently.

Karl mentions that he heard one of Franz Schubert’s quartets last winter [his quartet in A minor, D.804, on March 14 of 1824]. “It was very pretty, but there can be no question of comparison. In all, it has its own unique spirit, but one sees how you always strive further.”

Karl believes he will need to keep up the tutor until November. In October he must be very diligent, and then it will be all right. [Karl started at the Polytechnic Institute partway through the year, so he has needed a tutor to catch up, at the expense billed to Uncle Ludwig of 40 florins per month. Karl implies he will be caught up by November, the month that classes resume.] The Vice director, Franz Michael Reisser is very satisfied with his progress.

Karl explains to his uncle that the carriage was cheaper than expected, because although Holzmann bought two seats for her and Karl, there was one more passenger who came with them.

Uncle Ludwig makes a proposal, possibly to sell the quartet op.132 to Steiner or Schott’s rather than Schlesinger. Karl reminds him that it has a specific value, and if he does as he proposes, he will be the loser again.

While running errands, Karl ran into pianist Marie Eskeles. She was also at the concert Sunday, and she spoke about the beauties of the quartet op.132, and that she prefers to play Uncle Ludwig’s music above all others. She promised Karl she would tell her father, banker Bernhard Eskeles, that he is studying business as a profession and that she would arrange for a position in his banking house, if Karl wants it. Schlesinger also talked to Karl about this and said he could also use his influence, being well acquainted with the banking house. “Schlesinger said that from the very beginning, I would be very well cared for in pecuniary terms at Eskeles’s.”

Since Smart is coming tomorrow, Uncle Ludwig asks Karl to translate into German for him several playbills or programs for concerts in London over the last few years. Smart had given these materials to Beethoven at the celebratory dinner after the concert. The first item is a program from a concert in which the third part is “The admired new oratorio.” In English, they call it The Mount of Olives. [Because of the reference to “Third Part,” this most likely relates to the third morning oratorio concert held at the Edinburgh Music Festival on about October 29 of 1824, which Smart conducted. The work was indeed billed at that Festival simply as “The Mount of Olives.” However, he had also conducted the work under that name on other occasions as early as 1814.]

Next, “The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Hymns from Beethoven’s celebrated grand mass [in C op.86] (which was received with stormy applause.) [The Mass had been given in Vienna in concert in the form of three hymns, rather than a Catholic Mass, in order to avoid problems with the censors. This practice appears to have continued in Protestant England. Neither the German editors nor Prof. Albrecht have found any trace of such a performance conducted by Smart in England. However, it had been published in 1812, and later this month Smart will make reference in his journal to having conducted at least the Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass.]

The third item seems to be a concert flyer or announcement for the Philharmonic Society’s performance of the Ninth Symphony on March 21, 1825. Karl translates this as, “New grand characteristic Symphony with a Vocal Finale; the principal parts sung by Mdme Caradori and Dmselle Goodall, Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Philips (the Work composed for the Society by Bthvn). That is only the announcement.” [The description of the work in The Harmonicon of April 1825 at 69 was “New Grand Characteristic Sinfonia, M.S., with Vocal Finale (composed expressly for this Society,)” by the London Philharmonic Society.” The Ninth occupied all of Act II of the concert, which opened with a Haydn Symphony in E-flat, “Letter T” [Symphony Nr.91, Hob.I/91.] The soloists were Mad. Rosalbina Caradori (1800-1865); Miss Joanna Goodall (1797-1838), who sang regularly at the Philharmonic’s concerts; Mr. Thomas Vaughan (1782-1843); and Mr. Henry Phillips (1801-1876). Sir George Smart conducted. The Finale was sung in Italian, rather than German.]

The fourth item is a translation of part of the third stanza of God Save the King, which was used by Beethoven in Wellington’s Victory, op.91, and upon which he had also written a set of seven variations in C major, WoO 78, in 1803. The lines Karl translates are:

Long may he reign!
May he defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God Save the King.”

Karl probably brought with him to Baden a copy of today’s Wiener Zeitung. He copies out for his uncle an advertisement in today’s Intelligenzblatt supplement for waterproof silky velveteen hats, for 5 florins C.M.

Anton Schindler finds part of a page empty and adds his own fraudulent comments on the lower half of page 9v after Beethoven’s death.

Conversation Book 97, 8r-9v.

Karl Holz likely takes the evening carriage from Vienna to Baden. He does not, however, appear to visit Beethoven today, though he will be at Schloss Gutenbrunn early tomorrow to help prepare for the visit of Sir George Smart.

Smart, who is visiting Vienna, today goes to the village of Mödling, where Beethoven has spent a number of summers. He visits the old and new chateaux of Prince Liechtenstein, and then the church in Mödling, where he plays the organ. After a pleasant dinner with Madame Schulz and her son the Chevalier Fodransperg, he visits the palace of Laxenburg and then returns to Mödling about eight o’clock. “I think the sights of this day have pleased me more than any I have seen since I came to Vienna. The Laxenburg Gardens, or rather park, are truly beautiful and all connected with the place is most interesting.” They attend a performance at the theater in Mödling: “The performance was not edifying and the music was wretched.” Smart spends the night at Madame Schulz’s, and will continue on to Baden to see Beethoven tomorrow morning.

Cox and Cox, Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart, pp.121-122.

Today is the third day of the Second Yorkshire Musical Festival, and attempts are made to recover from the disasters of the preceding days. The morning concert at the York Minster is primarily devoted to selections from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and Haydn’s The Creation, both played to a capacity crowd. The evening concert at the new Festival Concert Rooms opens with Beethoven’s first symphony, with Rossini getting the lion’s share of the rest of the concert. According to The Harmonicon for October, 1825 (Vol.XXXIV) at 181, “The band and arrangements were still not so perfect as could have been wished, though far better than before; and we add with regret that some of the performers did not shew much zeal in remedying the evils which the inexperience of the music-porters occasioned.”

However, despite these shortcomings, “The symphony required no eulogy; it was most brilliantly executed.” The festival will close tomorrow on its fourth day.