BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, June 13, 1826
Nephew Karl comes to see his uncle as he had promised Sunday June 11 that he would do. He reports on Elisabeth Passy: “Today the housekeeper [candidate] who was here recently visited Frau Schlemmer [Karl’s landlady], in whom she found an old acquaintance; when she was still living in happier circumstances, Frau Schlemmer often visited her. She cannot praise her enough; she says her cooking leaves nothing to be desired, and otherwise she considers her, more than anyone else, capable of managing your household. She came to me and asked whether you had made a decision.”
Uncle Ludwig decides that he will hire Passy as a housekeeper. Karl asks when he wants to take her on. Ludwig asks when she can start, and Karl replies, “The day after tomorrow” [Thursday, June 15.] Uncle Ludwig suggests that he would take her with him if he takes an apartment in Baden. Karl says that if he goes to the country, he should take the English piano [the Broadwood, which is still at Conrad Graf’s shop for repairs.] Piano maker Leschen is more agreeable, and Karl believes he would loan a piano as well.
The soup has venison in it. Karl computes the amount of coffee money allotted to the housekeeper, which amounts to 60 beans in value. Karl says, “My time is limited—I have to leave in order to manage things. I will take care of everything with the housekeeper.” Karl leaves, and returns probably a few hours later.
He has in the meantime visited Passy (who lives near Karl’s rooms) and told her she was hired. “She was exceptionally happy to come here. — She only wishes that the maid [Marie Stiegel] could sleep in the front room.” Uncle Ludwig asks whether Passy will want a Spanish wall barrier, an expense that he did not want to pay with one of the previous housekeepers. Karl says that “By the time she gets up or goes to bed, there will be no one in the front room, so she will not need a Spanish wall.” They don’t have to say anything to the maid until Passy gets here, though.
Uncle Ludwig brings up the subject of a tour of England, one of his fondest projects, again. But for how long would he need to get a passport? And how would he collect his pension if he were in England? Karl tells him that he can just apply for a one-year passport. While he’s away, if he needs an extension, he can apply for it. “If all goes well abroad, which I do not doubt, then you won’t need the pension.” Karl jokes that they still need to get to know the English beefsteak [Karl uses the English word, which he has done several times before; it appears to amuse him.]
The asparagus has gone bad.
Uncle Ludwig is thinking again about a complete edition of his works, but who should he have publish them? Karl suggests that he make applications to a variety of publishers for proposals. For example, he could accept the proposal from “Sauer et Leidesdorf.“
Uncle Ludwig raises some other issues related to the housekeeper, including the shopping and cooking. Karl tells him they can talk with her about that when she comes the day after tomorrow at 7 o’clock. Then she can shop and cook at once. She’s very good, but she is on her own. Passy was once very rich. “Her sister is a baroness and has two estates; but she does nothing for her.” Uncle Ludwig asks how he knows this. Karl says that’s what Frau Schlemmer says. She also says Passy’s house was one of the foremost here in Vienna.
Karl discusses other families who have fallen on hard times. Parish, owner of the Fries banking house, squandered 15 million florins; his brother bought an estate and became a baron. He went through his brother’s books but said he could not be helped. The Fries banking house was once the foremost in Austria, and now suddenly it is bankrupt. But Herr Fries got out of the business shortly before it went under; he has nothing to say about it any more. Parish was the actual owner; Fries is long gone. The paper money keeps getting devalued and will surely disappear in a short time. Uncle Ludwig wonders whether that will affect his pension [which has been badly injured over the years by inflation and devaluation of currency]. Karl assures him that the pension is paid in C.M. and thus should not be affected. Paper money really should disappear, he thinks; it is actually not money at all. Everything will become cheaper.
Karl leaves. Later today, former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes to visit Ludwig, asking that he be allowed to bring a visitor, opera singer Nanette (Anna) Schechner. “I have come to ask for your permission to present Delle Schechner to you; she is longing to make your personal acquaintance.” Schindler tells Beethoven that Vienna has never heard anything like her; if she had an Italian name she would be considered greater than any singer in the world. Beethoven asks where she is from; Munich is the answer. She has studied under Fernando Orlandi (1777-1848), and one other [Domenico Ronconi, former director of the Italian Opera in Vienna, now based in Munich.]
Schindler has more kind things to say about her: “Nature has treated her most lavishly; 3 others could have been endowed with the share [of talent] she got. Milder falls far behind here.” Today she is singing in Don Giovanni, and then later Fidelio. Beethoven asks who has been engaged as the kapellmeisters at the Kärtnertor Theater. Joseph Weigl and Adalbert Gyrowetz currently; then Conradin Kreutzer in September. Wenzel Würfel of the Warsaw Conservatory and Karl August Krebs will be coaching.
Friedrich August Kanne’s proposed opera is not going forward. Kärntnertor Theater director Louis Antoine Duport returned the book, Die Mainacht oder der Blocksberg, to him with just the words: au Plaisir de Vous voir. [Looking forward to seeing you.] “I cannot disagree with Herr Duport, although I am very sorry.”
Schindler is surprised that Conrad Graf still has not finished working on Beethoven’s Broadwood piano. He wonders whether Graf is unable to make the adjustments he had proposed. “I urgently beg you not to let yourself be deceived; presumably he wants to profiteer from your name; this seems to be his plan.” [This was, of course, Schindler’s own plan, so he appears to be engaging in projection here.] Graf has a Broadwood of his own. “Such speculators are capable of doing anything; moreover he may think that you do not care much about it, or whatever is going on.—He is also a Pater Noster Gässel insider” [i.e., close with publisher Tobias Haslinger.]
Beethoven consents to Schechner’s visit, to Schindler’s joy. “If Miss Schechner can take some time off tomorrow during rehearsals, we will come around 5 o’clock, perhaps accompanied by her mother, who is a splendid woman. In her you will find no beauty, but you will get to know a very pretty brunette and a nice girl, who apart from her art also takes care of domestic affairs, for there are 10 children, who she supports and has educated with her income.” What! exclaims Beethoven. Has she brought ten children with her to Vienna? No, Schindler explains, she has only brought her mother, a sister and a brother with her.
“You can invite her for dinner some time; she is a very simple girl and without the slightest pretension; you must know that she is not embarrassed to wash and iron for her younger brothers and sisters.”
Beethoven asks after his attorney, Johann Baptist Bach, for whom Schindler had clerked years before. “Dr. Bach causes me much and unexpected annoyance, as he does very little or nothing about my affairs with [Josepha von] Scheidlen [who took over management of the Josephstadt Theater after her father’s death last year, and refused to let Schindler have his promised Akademie benefit concert there, since he was now working for the competing Känrtnertor Theater] and has not even filed a complaint yet. I do not deserve this from him, but asking does not help — In short, I have already cursed all attorneys and their consort….He puts me off from week to week, now almost 3 months have gone like that.”
[Schindler skips over leaf 31, which is filled in later, probably tomorrow.]
“This is the first favor he could show me, though not for free, because I helped him for free over 2 years to manage his business, when he had no office. I only did that as a favor, since I was then working for the Archduke Anton.” Beethoven suggests that he could find another attorney. “I understand that; however, I need a publicly accredited man who advocates this matter.” It would only cost an hour of his time, but it’s all in his hands now.
Beethoven mentions that he is still trying to get payment for the last quartet (op.130) from Prince Nikolai Galitzin in St. Petersburg. Schindler is surprised, and asks whether Beethoven has still not written to the embassy as he intended to do. Who would I write to at the embassy, Beethoven asks. [Ludwig Graf von] Lebzeltern (1774-1854), the Austrian ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary in Petersburg, Schindler suggests. [Unbeknownst to Schindler, Lebzeltern has been removed from this position earlier this year, because his brother-in-law Prince S.P Trubezkoi was one of the Decembrist revolutionaries.] “Just send him a letter through the embassy.”
“Now, my great master, if I am not here tomorrow by 5 o’clock with my interesting companions, it will be because of obstacles at the theater. But we shall come one of these days at the same time. Beethoven suggests that the ladies can come visit him without Schindler if necessary. Schindler says, “Then you will have to authorize me in writing, otherwise she [Schechner’s mother] will not believe me. I am not yet so intimate with Fr. Schechner that I can expect her to believe my words unconditionally.” Beethoven says he will send for them, and Schindler asks whether the maid still knows where he lives. [Probably not, since when he was Beethoven’s assistant was many maids ago.]
Conversation Book 112, 22r-30v, 32r-33r.