BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, February 18, 1823
Beethoven makes a note to himself to write to George Thomson in Scotland to get a copy of Thomson’s publications of the Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk songs Beethoven had arranged. He also makes a reminder to write to Moritz Schlesinger today. [While the letter to Schlesinger is discussed below, no letter to Thomson from this time period is known to survive.] He also puts down the name of physicist and inventor Ernst Chladni (1756-1827). [That may be related to an advertisement in the Intelligenzblatt of February 15 (at 316) for Chladni’s several books on acoustics. Beethoven certainly had a personal interest in the science of acoustics and hearing.]
Conversation Book 24, 33v. Years later, Schindler writes some fraudulent entries on this otherwise blank conversation book page.
Beethoven writes two letters today that are known to survive. The first is to Friedrich Duncker, in Berlin. Duncker was the Cabinet Secretary to the King of Prussia. Beethoven had met Duncker during the festivities for the Congress of Vienna, and has set incidental music for Duncker’s drama Leonore Prohaska, WoO 96. He goes on about how he misses his friend Duncker, and complains that for the last three years he has been ill constantly. Two years ago he had hardly recovered from rheumatism than he came down with jaundice, and then last winter he had a chest problem. While better, he still doesn’t consider himself well.
Beethoven finally gets to the point, noting that he has composed several works in the meantime, including a great solemn Mass. It could also be performed as an oratorio. He has applied here to Prince Hatzfeld, who promised to forward to the King of Prussia Beethoven’s subscription petition regarding the Mass, at a fee of 50 ducats. “A small number of subscribers won’t help much, since the cost of copying is so is large. Maybe you can help here, so that the king subscribes? I also wrote to Prince Radziwill about this, so maybe the Prince would also subscribe himself. I know that you like to do things for others where you can, and hope you can do no less for me.”
Brandenburg Letter 1571, Anderson Letter 1139. The original is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 116, and can be seen here:
https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5027485167124480/scan/0
The letter to Maurice/Moritz Schlesinger in Paris tells him that he definitely sent the corrections for the sonata op.111; Schlesinger should look again. [The corrections were sent in the mail only a week ago, so they most likely crossed in the mails with Schlesinger’s letter.] Of the works he recently offered Schlesinger, the Overture [Consecration of the House, op.124] was performed on October 3 at the opening of the new Theater in the Josephstadt.
Beethoven asks Schlesinger for a copy of a particular work of French composer Étienne Méhul (1765-1817) [probably the opera Valentine de Milan. Méhul was notable as the first composer to be referred to as “Romantic.” Beethoven may also have seen Méhul as a kindred spirit since Méhul adopted his nephew]; Beethoven also he asks whether Moritz could arrange to get him a couple copies of the 25 Scottish Songs, op.108, that had been published by his father Adolph Schlesinger in Berlin, with gilt binding, which he would like to present.
Finally, Beethoven notes that the dedication to the Piano Sonata in C minor, op.111, should be to “Fr. Antonia v. Brentano, noble birth name of Birkenstock.” [Antonia, the wife of his friend Franz Brentano, is one of the most popular suggestions for Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved. The dedication of the Sonata as published by Schlesinger ended up being in favor of Archduke Rudolph, as Beethoven had instructed Schlesinger in his letter of August 31, 1822, which also indicated Beethoven had already so informed the Archduke, so it was probably just as well. Beethoven’s revised intentions were respected in the British version published by Clementi, where Brentano was the dedicatee. A draft letter to Ries survives, stating that Antonie Brentano should be the dedicatee of both the sonatas op.110 and 111. Brandenburg Letter 1592, Anderson Letter 1118, held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek aut. 35,52.] Beethoven asks for a quick reply.
Brandenburg Letter 1572; Anderson Letter 1140. This letter is held by the Royal Academy of Music in London. According to the postal markings, Schlesinger did not receive this letter until March 1.
According to his diary, Carl Maria von Weber writes to Beethoven today in another now-lost letter, presumably asking again whether he can get a copy of the score for Fidelio for the upcoming performances there.