BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, April 13, 1824

Ignaz Schuppanzigh visits Beethoven this morning regarding the plans for the Akademie benefit concert. Schuppanzigh asks whether Beethoven has not heard anything from Clement. The word is that when he got Beethoven’s letter saying Schuppanzigh was to be concertmaster, he was furious.

Franz Jäger, who had been invited to sing the tenor part in the concert, wrote to Schindler declining. He said the part was too low for his voice. Schuppanzigh and Schindler knew about this for three days, but did not want to tell Beethoven because he didn’t want to upset him. Now Beethoven has to be aware so other arrangements can be made. But the director could order Jäger to sing.

Schuppanzigh asks whether Kärntnertor Theater manager Louis Antoine Duport has replied yet. [He has not.] Schuppanzigh thinks he gets no joy from music, so it’s all the same to him, however it goes.

Another invitation is needed for the choral singers. [Schindler had made the same request of Beethoven yesterday.] Sonnleither needs it to make arrangements. He also would like to know how many singers are usually at the Theater an der Wien. Beethoven makes a note to inquire. Schuppanzigh reminds Beethoven that Schwarzböck, the leader of the Singing Institute connected with the an der Wien, needs the choral parts promptly, because the boys in the chorus learn only with difficulty.

Schuppanzigh suggests it would be good if the parts are ready for the leaders of the four string parts to run through them at the end of the week. He inquires as to how the copying of parts is coming, and it’s going slowly. He thinks it would be good if the principal string parts could be given earlier than the others.

Schuppanzigh asks whether Hensler, the manager of the Theater in the Josephstadt, has sent the Overture yet. No, not yet, Beethoven answers. Schuppanzigh tells him to make a sign and don’t forget it.

After Schuppanzigh leaves, unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes. He spoke to Caroline Unger, who is determined that she and Preisinger will sing, whether or not it makes Duport angry. They will promise him not to be sick for the entire summer.

Beethoven asks Schindler about Franz Jäger declining to sing in the Akademie. Schindler says Jäger wanted to go to Pressburg this week. [Schindler does not mention anything about Jäger saying it was too low for his voice.] But Wilhelm Vogel of the Theater an der Wien says he will have Jäger perform in any event. Schindler says Schuppanzigh should have remained silent, because it was all resolved. Jäger only bowed out because he thought the Akademie was going to be on the 22nd.

Schindler says that Schuppanzigh thinks Anna Wranitzky should sing soprano, and Joseph Seipelt bass, but that there is no good alto in Vienna.

Since Duport is being difficult, Schindler suggests that Beethoven should demand back the libretto for Grillparzer’s Melusine. Duport isn’t doing anything with it anyway, and that way Beethoven could show his lack of regard for Duport.

Later in the day, Ferdinand Piringer visits Beethoven. [Although he frequently appears in these columns as conductor of the Concerts spirituel, Piringer is here today in his capacity as an official in the Court Treasury. As part of the compromise between Ludwig and Karl’s mother Johanna, she was to pay Ludwig half of her pension to help cover the costs of Karl’s guardianship. Ludwig appears to be thinking of following through on his plans to relinquish his claim to that half, perhaps believing that the proceeds of the Akademie will be sufficient so that he no longer will need to collect half of the pension.] The agreement could be dissolved and the matter would be closed. Karl would continue to receive his share until age 20. If the agreement is not dissolved, then Karl needs to bring testimonials from the parish priest to prove that he’s still alive so he could collect the funds. Rather than dissolving the agreement completely, Piringer suggests that Johanna could be given Karl’s payment sheet currently, without prejudice to Beethoven’s future rights. Piringer will take the necessary steps and then report back.

Piringer follows up by asking when the first rehearsal for the Akademie will be held, and who the solo singers will be. Nothing has been decided for certain yet.

A representative of the Lithographic Institute comes to Beethoven’s apartment. They’ve learned of Beethoven’s gold medal from King Louis XVIII of France, and they’d like to copy it onto stone as a supplement to the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. It would be printed life-sized, clearly and beautifully.

Beethoven asks about the possibility of printing the Ninth Symphony score by lithography. One could very well make a score in stone, and that would be the lowest priced option. But the score would always be necessary for examining the work and also the format.

[In what has been identified as a later forgery by Schindler, he says he encountered Archduke Rudolph, who is still weak from his last attack of epilepsy. Schindler says the Archduke gave Beethoven dispensation from visiting him. Even if these are fabrications, they may reflect a genuine state of affairs regarding the Archduke’s health, because otherwise there is no explanation for why the Archduke suddenly stopped asking for lessons from Beethoven, when last year Rudolph had been fairly insistent whenever he was in Vienna.]

Beethoven writes another setting of “Sternen,” possibly for Karl as a followup to their discussion the other day, or perhaps for his own amusement

Conversation Book 61, 30v-36v.

At some point between Saturday. April 10 and tomorrow, Wednesday, April 14, Beethoven, after discussing the matter with his friends, publishers S.A. Steiner and Tobias Haslinger, decides against having his Akademie concert in the Theater an der Wien. He resolves instead to have it in the Landständischer Saal, which is available on April 25. The principal reason for the change appears to be the unwillingness of the management of the Theater an der Wien to move a play, which was already planned to begin its run on April 24th, in order to accommodate Beethoven’s concert and rehearsals. It does not hurt that the Landständischer Saal could be had rent-free, though it only seated about 500 and could not be heated (which was less of a concern in late April and early May).

The plan now is to use the orchestra and chorus of the Musikverein instead, which would also save money. Beethoven cannot have run this idea past Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who would have exploded at the notion of his leading an orchestra comprised entirely of amateurs and dilettantes for this important event, in place of professional musicians. Ludwig discusses the change of plans with Brother Johann, and Johann accordingly advises Count Palffy of the Theater an der Wien. Palffy is furious, since the theater is in dire financial straits and desperately needs the 1,000 florins promised by Beethoven for the concert, not to mention the proceeds of the promised second and third Akademie concert that Palffy had required as a condition.

The summons against Beethoven’s former unpaid assistant, Franz Oliva, for enforcement of a judgment against him by his old employer Anton Offenheimer, for over 3600 florins, is reprinted today at page 350 of the Amts-Blatt supplement to the Wiener Zeitung. No new additional information is included, so it remains as mysterious as the first printing.