BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, July 18, 1826 (approximately)

Unpaid assistant Karl Holz visits Beethoven about today. He says that he will pick up the latest proof of the quartet op.130 from Mathias Artaria today. He asks Beethoven for the parts to compare. Holz also delivers Beethoven’s restrung violins, saying that violin maker Bernhard Stoss did a fine job of it, though he did have to glue one piece.

Holz asks about the first part of Kuffner’s libretto to the oratorio Saul; Beethoven has already read it.

Holz spoke with courier Augustin Lipscher, who had been in St. Petersburg. He tried without success to collect the 50 ducats due from Prince Nikolai Galitzin for the quartet op.130 that he had commissioned. “The prince is said to have been very polite; but later on he always pretended not to be there. Once it was said that–“

Holz is here interrupted by someone at the door. A packet from Maurice Schlesinger is delivered through the bookseller Tendler. There is 80 ducats from Tendler, not in gold, but as a paper bill of exchange at the standard rate of 4 florins 30 kreutzers to the ducat, which will be delivered as soon as Beethoven gives them the new quartet in score and in parts, and the 2nd (A minor) quartet [op.132] in score is given to Tendler. Holz says, “It is very Jewish of him. First of all, you lose on the Agio [exchange fee] 40 florins W.W., and then [you have] the expenses for the copies, about 40 to 50 florins; in that way you would lose at least 10 ducats.” [In later agreements with Schlesinger’s father in Berlin, Beethoven will get reimbursed for the Agio.] Poet Ignaz Castelli (who had a publishing relationship with Tendler & Manstein) had told Holz yesterday about the business with Schlesinger. He showed Holz the message yesterday. Apparently the package was delivered to Tobias Haslinger. Holz thinks it dishonorable for Haslinger to demand these things go through him. What would the Schotts say to that? “What a triumph for the Paternostergässler!” But in the end, Beethoven winds up only with 70 ducats instead of 80.

Returning to Lipscher, Holz says that the courier considers it to be more recklessness and laziness on the part of Galitzin, rather than unwillingness to pay the money.

The lumberman comes to the door, asking whether Beethoven wants to buy wood. Holz points out there is not much left in the cellar.

Former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler is looking for another position. [He is currently a 2nd violinist at the Kärntnertor Theater.]

If Beethoven has found some violin sonatas, Holz will send Nephew Karl the piano parts so he can play them. Ludwig says Karl is busy with his studies. Holz tells him that he must have some spare time; he cannot be studying all the time. Karl is comparing notes with his classmates, Ludwig says. Holz tells him that Vice Director of the Polytechnic Institute, Franz Michael Reisser, disapproves of this; he prefers that the students do their own self-assessment. Holz declines further comment on the issue.

He has news from Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries. “He will not go to Vienna, as had been decided in the beginning, but in winter he will go to England in order to make some money, as he lost everything with [the bankruptcy of London banker Lion Abraham] Goldschmit [sic].” Holz believes that Ries’ wife Harriet is Goldschmidt’s daughter [no such relationship has been verified.]

Beethoven is still annoyed about Mathias Artaria not telling him promptly that he wanted the new quartet, op.131. Holz says, “He regretted it very much; if I had not said that it is too late, he would certainly have answered at once.”

Haslinger has changed the name of the old Steiner shop, now in its new location, to “Haslinger’s Art Shop.” “I was there yesterday; it looks very nice. Better than in the beer house.” [Yet another reference to the liquor-soaked New Year’s Eve party held at the Steiner Music Shop last December.]

Dinner is served; part of it has been burned by housekeeper Marie Stiegel. But it is one of Holz’s favorite dishes.

Holz believes [correctly] that it will be some time before Fidelio is ready for performance at the Kärtntertor Theater.

But the first order of business is the quartet op.130; that has to be finished first. As Holz mentioned before, he received the latest set of proof sheets today. “Now it has been proofread 5 times by someone else, and I found 3 errors right away on the first page.”

Holz was at the home of Raphael Georg Kiesewetter, who often holds concerts there. He saw Frau Vivenot. Her and Dr. Vivenot’s son Rudolph (1807-1884) is studying medicine and will be leaving on an educational journey to Paris and London next month. Holz will give him a letter to take to Sir George Smart, who had visited Beethoven the previous fall.

Holz asks for the remaining parts of the 9th symphony that he is to proofread. He only has the 1st violin part. Although it was proofread long ago, it still contains lots of errors.

Holz asks whether the score of the new quartet in C-sharp minor [op.131] has been copied yet. No, it has not. Holz asks how many movements there are in the quartet, and Beethoven tells him seven. Holz offers to make a fair copy of the quartet, with Beethoven’s permission. But Beethoven is already making arrangements with copyist Wenzel Rampl, who will visit Beethoven probably tomorrow or the next day.

Beethoven suggests that the Schuppanzigh Quartet [for which Holz plays second violin] might premiere the quartet. Holz says “We want to, we must hear it.”

Conversation Book 115, 11r-16v.