BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, February 28, 1826
Beethoven writes an undated letter today to his doctor, Anton Braunhofer, as had been requested, describing his condition. “Esteemed Master and Practitioner of Aesculapius! I only report to you that I am better regarding my lower abdomen, i.e., as much as my nature and the means so far allow—the powders are all used up, the diet is the same—”
“I now wish to know what else you have decided concerning my body—my back is not yet quite in its former state. I hope, however, that I will not have to bend over, indeed, never—” [The latter is a political comment; he doesn’t wish to make obsequious movements for the nobility, bending down before them.]
“That is all I can tell you, you will now think it over and this will be the best for your admirer and friend, Beethoven.”
Brandenburg Letter 2123; Albrecht Letter 427. The autograph is held in Florence at the National Central Library (Gonnelli cassetta 6.225). The paper is of the same type, with the same watermark, as Beethoven’s letter to Braunhofer of February 23, 1826, and relates to the same complaints, so we are fairly confident in the dating of this letter.
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz comes to visit Beethoven today, bringing the new coffee machine. Housekeeper Frau Lindner continues her battles with Barbara Holzmann, who is accused of locking the other woman out. Holz confronted her on this, as he promised to do earlier, and she was impertinent enough to swear on her honor that it was not so. They clearly can’t get along and Holzmann should be replaced.
Today is the day that had been planned for Beethoven’s Akademie concert, which never was arranged, even though permission had been granted for it. Holz sarcastically asks, “Shall we go together?”
Holz notes that the young violinist Léon de Saint-Lubin [for whom Beethoven had written the now lost cadenza Hess 296, as well as the violin solo in Wo sich die Pulse, WoO 98] gave a concert on Thursday, February 23 to have his first symphony heard. He had to pay 100 gulden for it, Holz notes.
Joseph Weigl (1766-1846) has also conducted his oratorio, Das Leiden unsers Herrn Jesus Christus [The Sorrows of Our Lord Jesus Christ] at the Musikverein. He would be a good candidate to conduct the Ninth Symphony when Beethoven gets around to doing his benefit concert. [Beethoven had previously been unenthusiastic about Weigl as the conductor of the 1825 concerts, and probably continues in that opinion.]
One of the housekeepers is making coffee, but the water is not yet boiling. Holz suggests firing them both. They can get two other housekeepers within two weeks. Beethoven makes it plain that he wants to give at least Holzmann two weeks notice, rather than firing her immediately. [Beethoven is likely fearful of being left alone for two weeks in his ill condition, and Holzmann at least is familiar with him and his demands.] Holz asks if the new housekeeper [who starts March 12] should have her sister come then, to replace Holzmann? The housekeeper pro tempore knows the other one; she claims she cooks excellently. Holz will ask for the sister’s letters of recommendation so they can make a judgment.
“In the meantime, I shall have my fast shoes [roller skates] made,” Holz jokes, for all the errands he needs to run for Beethoven. [The announcement of the invention of “mechanical wheeled shoes” had appeared in the February 5, 1826 Wiener Zeitung, made by watchmaker August Löhner.]
Holz, before he departs, makes a cryptic statement about someone unidentified, but it’s not clear who is meant. Professor Albrecht opines that it may be Nephew Karl’s landlord, Matthias Schlemmer. “He says that he knows things that he has not confided to anyone out of fear of harming you, and if someone asks him, then he merely shrugs his shoulders. I haven’t been afraid to tell you what is true, since it is better to learn it earlier than regret it later on.” If Schlemmer is indeed meant, then the last sentence would likely relate to Holz’s spying on Karl’s doings and reporting back to Ludwig.
Conversation Book 105, 31v-34v
The March issue of The Harmonicon magazine (Nr. XXXIX) at 57 contains a review of Beethoven’s Grand Symphonies, arranged for the Piano-Forte, with Accompaniments of Flute, Violin and Violoncello, by J.N. Hummel, Maitre de Chapelle to the Duke of Saxe Weimar, No.2 (Chappell and Co., New Bond Street, London). “The first number of this work, containing the symphony in C, was mentioned in our last volume—A second now appears, which is No.1 in the quarto edition in score published by Cianchettini and Sperati, commencing thus: [The first three bars of the 2nd Symphony are quoted here. Cianchettini & Sperati had somehow reversed the numbering of Beethoven’s first and second symphonies when they printed the scores in England in 1809.] “
“This and the symphony in C minor, divide the opinion of the connoisseurs: both are equally grand in design, but brilliancy is the characteristic of the one, sublimity of the other; and we always find that judges entirely agree as to the positive merits of the two works, and only differ as to their relative qualities. Who can listen unmoved to the Larghetto in A of the present symphony or hear without a quickened pulse the animating scherzo?—But we must not be seduced into a review of a work that is not contemporary with our own publication: we have only to speak of the manner in which M. Hummel has executed his task; and this is deserving of every praise. We thought the first of his series overloaded with notes; a fault that cannot be imported to the present, which is the most masterly adaptation of a score that has ever fallen under our notice. The spirit of the original is finely preserved, and by means of the accompaniments the essential points are retained; except, of course, those which depend on a mass of sound—on drums, trombones, &c. We have also great pleasure in stating, that the very correct way in which this number as well as the former one, is printed, entitles the editor to great commendation.”