BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, April 19, 1825

Nephew Karl goes to see Dr. Braunhofer again today about Uncle Ludwig’s intestinal distress. Braunhofer says that staying up late at night is not good. The housekeeper needs to make a barley soup for him, without parsley. And if he has any appetite, a couple of soft-boiled eggs would be fine. But otherwise, Ludwig cannot eat anything. Ludwig is not happy about that, and asks whether something can be put into the soup. No, she may not add any spices or any greens to the soup.

Early in the afternoon, Brother Johann comes with a copyist, who has been working on copying the Missa Solemnis. He has finished it except for the trombones. He’d like to use 16-line violin paper, if that’s all right. The copyist shows where he has copied the trombones into the new score at one point.

After the copyist leaves (but Johann remains), Dr. Braunhofer comes to the apartment in person. He thinks that the hilly area around Krems [where Johann has his estate in Gneixendorf] is a heavenly region. “Paradise lies below the broad plains.” Clearly the doctor agrees with Johann’s repeated entreaties for Ludwig to come to stay with him.

Johann asks his brother how many bowel movements he has had. Dr. Braunhofer doesn’t want to give Ludwig medications. Rather, he needs to follow his advice of fresh air, moderate exercise, and for a while a regulated diet, which he gives to Ludwig in writing. Johann tells Ludwig that he can have some soup, and some spinach, and if he still wants something, a soft-boiled egg. He should drink water that has been filtered through charcoal.

While Ludwig is resting, violinist Joseph Böhm comes to visit him, having heard the composer is ill. But he does not want to bother Beethoven while he sleeps and leaves after giving his best wishes to Johann.

Nephew Karl returns to the apartment, having visited one of the housekeeper applicants. She cannot come sooner than Friday, April 22. Ludwig is up to having some spinach, and Karl asks whether he would like an egg with it. Karl reassures his uncle that the doctor said the illness will soon be over, if he can just bear up. But Johann observes that there are still intestinal blockages.

Karl asks whether his uncle has seen today’s Theater-Zeitung? [He almost certainly has not since he probably has not left the apartment.] The newspaper reports that in Frankfurt, Goethe requested a license for his complete works and for official copyright protection in all the German states. The Austrian Emperor was considered likely to grant this protection to him as well. Since Ludwig had made a note a few days ago about asking the Emperor for copyright protection of his works, this article certainly would have been of interest to him.

Johann asks for the key to the wood bin in the basement. [Most likely the maid would haul the wood up to the fourth floor.]

Conversation Book 87, 17v-19r.

Ludwig Rellstab describes his continued disappointment at Beethoven’s prolonged illness preventing him from making another visit to the composer. “Beethoven’s ill health continued, for April was unkind. Meanwhile, the time when I would have to leave Vienna drew nearer and nearer, and the fear that I might not see him again began to trouble me.”

“Even though I did not ring his doorbell every day to inquire how he was, I still received news from one intermediary or another. It was not an outright illness from which he suffered, but what is even worse, a chronic ailment, which naturally increased his hypochondriacal mood.”

“In the meantime, chance brought me together with the young man, Beethoven’s nephew, who lived with him. He said to me, without being asked, ‘You have sent my Uncle some very beautiful poems. He thanks you very much for them and has said that he will set them to music.’ That this news, even if it was perhaps only a polite turn of phrase, put me into the most joyful agitation will be easily understood even by those who are neither poets themselves nor able to empathize with the veneration of Beethoven.”

Rellstab, Beethoven. Ein Bild der Erinnerung aus meinem Leben in Garten und Wald. Novellen und vermischte Schriften, vol.4, Leipzig: Brockhaus 1854, pp.92-93.

Beethoven writes Rellstab a short undated note sometime about now: “I am worse than before, but hope that I will be better in a few days, and then it will be with great pleasure that I see you here. Your Beethoven.” Brandenburg Letter 1960. As of the writing of Brandenburg’s edition of the letters, it was in private hands.