BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, March 1, 1825

Count Dietrichstein, who approves the concerts and theatrical productions to be staged in Vienna, issues a decree to Beethoven, giving consent for an Akademie benefit concert to be held in April. “You are hereby granted permission to give a concert on the evening of the first Norma Day of the month of April [i.e., Good Friday, April 4, 1825] at 7 o’clock, on which the two Imperial and Royal Court theaters remain closed, in the large hall of the Landhauses, on condition that no damage is sustained in the hall, and no expense is incurred to the government treasury.” Dietrichstein instructs his employees to inform the Building Clerk Ignatz Fitzinger the hall needs to be opened on that day.

Brandenburg Letter 1941. The original letter does not survive, but Dietrichstein’s draft is in the Lower Austrian State Archives (Landhaus 1793-1826, box 145, fasc.19). Together with it is a draft of a letter to Fitzinger, in the hand of a clerk “The composer Ludwig van Beethoven is granted permission, etc.” Brandenburg Letter 1942.