BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, September 7, 1826 (approximately)
Uncle Ludwig visits Nephew Karl in the hospital again today, or possibly very early tomorrow before he goes to Nussdorf for the day. Ludwig asks Karl about his doctor. “The old physician is a doctor of medicine and therefore has little to do with me. The oldest one of the three physicians, whom you saw recently, is my actual doctor, Gassner, a surgeon.”
Ludwig mentions the chocolate that he has arranged for Karl. Karl says they make it very well in the coffee house. His mother also brought him coffee and sugar, and he goes between the two. He alternates based on his mood. Sometimes he has coffee to have an easier bowel movement.
Uncle Ludwig suggests that Brother Johann could also contribute to Karl’s support as a cadet. Karl thinks that it is better if Uncle Ludwig asks for it. “It does not make a good impression if I were to ask him for something, it is better that you ask him for it.” Johann would comply out of fear of Uncle Ludwig. But Karl does not think there is hope for a subsidy so long as he lives, and the inheritance would go to Ludwig by law since he has no child [if Johann has no will], so he would have to bequeath it to Karl. “But it’s better you talk to him; you could write to him to come and see me, which he intended, after all.”
Uncle Ludwig mentions that there has been some discussion of asking King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia for an honorary order in recognition of the dedication of the Ninth Symphony. Karl doesn’t think that the order would be useful; being promoted to the nobility might be, though. Karl asks whether the Archduke is in Vienna. [He in fact arrived for a stay in Vienna today. According to the Wiener Zeitung for September 11 (Nr.207) at 871, reprinted in the Brünner Zeitung of September 14, 1826 (Nr.253) at 1079, Beethoven’s patron Archduke Rudolph, Cardinal and Archbishop of Olmütz, arrived at the Imperial Hofburg Palace in Vienna today, September 7, in good health. The Archduke had spent much of the summer in the spa area of Ischl.]
Beethoven goes back to his apartment in the Schwarzspanierhaus. He starts a shopping list:
- 2 ear trumpets
Beethoven is interrupted by Johann August Walcha, the notary for the Kinsky Estate. He has the September 1 installment of his annuity from Kinsky. “I bring you the pension from Kinsky. Holz is out of town, I heard, therefore I did not want to leave the money until he comes back.”
Walcha notes that the payment date was altered from its prior date. He asks when the pension is to be withdrawn in the future. Beethoven tells him the newly revised payment dates. Walcha requests that, “When the pension is to be withdrawn in the future, I ask that you always issue the receipt at the newly stipulated dates. I will always with pleasure take care of the withdrawal: I am honored to be of service to a Beethoven.”
After Walcha leaves, Beethoven adds the following to the shopping list:
- all kinds of wax candles factory at the Währinger Linie —
Conversation Book 120, 26v-28r. Beethoven makes preparations for a day in the country tomorrow, since it is a holiday.
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz writes to Beethoven today from Baden. The letter today is lost, and its contents are unknown, but its existence is confirmed by a mention in Beethoven’s response to Holz dated September 9, 1826. Brandenburg Letter 2195.