BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, March 16, 1824

Nephew Karl is at Uncle Ludwig’s apartment this morning. One of Beethoven’s shirts has a red stain on the shoulder. The housekeeper says it comes from laying it on something made of iron. The wash needs to be left until the day after tomorrow, otherwise she won’t be able to finish her work tomorrow. There are only a few things to be soaked today, and that is not good for the wash. She will be going to the meat vendors at the Lichtensteg, a narrow street near the Hoher Market. Karl will walk with her, since the Lichtenstag is very near the university. Karl asks how much he should spend.

After he leaves, unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes around. The copying is far behind, a message that copyist Paul Maschek had tried to get through to Beethoven a few days ago without success. If they had the four copied string parts for the Missa Solemnis soon to proofread, then there wouldn’t have to be such a hurry with the wind instruments. Schindler says he will come back in the afternoon, and by then maybe he [probably meaning Maschek] will have brought it [likely referring to more parts for proofreading.]

Schindler is going to Brother Johann’s today, since Johann has a great many instructions before he leaves [for Linz, where he was considering the purchase of another apothecary. The instructions probably relate to keeping an eye on Johann’s unfaithful wife Therese, rather than matters related to the concert.]

Perhaps after returning from Johann’s, Schindler has some unpleasant news from soprano Henriette Sontag, who was a surprise guest at Beethoven’s for dinner Sunday, two days ago. “The few drops of wine from the first pressing also caused a great explosion in her, so that the performance of Der Tauscher had to be cancelled yesterday. The night before last, she vomited 15 times. Yesterday evening, however, it was better. Alto Caroline Unger’s reaction was just exactly the opposite.” Beethoven comments on their sturdiness, causing Schindler to agree, “They are heroines!”

Apparently the ladies are unaccustomed to drinking wine, and it’s bad wine, as it turns out. Sontag was supposed to have a rehearsal of a Court concert yesterday morning, March 15. If she didn’t show up, she would have lost the 24-ducat fee, so she sent word she was feeling better and would come.

[Schindler is at minimum grossly exaggerating for effect, if not lying outright to Beethoven. According to editor Theodore Albrecht, no performance of Der Taucher was cancelled due to Sontag’s illness or otherwise. That opera was not even scheduled to be performed on Sunday night (a ballet was on the calendar), and Monday night’s performance of Der Taucher occurred as scheduled, though whether Sontag took part is unknown. Not only that, but the Court concert scheduled for today was already postponed until March 30th, and the rehearsal was likewise postponed until the 29th. Albrecht credibly suggests that Schindler may have been cruelly trying to disturb Beethoven as petty revenge for the composer’s anger at having two frauleins suddenly show up for Sunday dinner, with little warning from Schindler, who knew at minimum that Unger intended to come.]

Schindler added some fraudulent comments, after Beethoven’s death, at the end of this conversation book about Sontag and Unger and having better and healthier wine in the future.

Conversation Book 59, 14v-15v. That concludes Conversation Book 59. Book 60 follows a couple days later, beginning on about Friday, March 19. There may be a very short missing book in between, or Beethoven simply does not have any visitors on the 17th and 18th.

Anton Mayrhofer, the registry director of the Lord High Steward’s office, issues a bureaucratic decree to Beethoven. The composer has applied to the wrong place for permission to hold a musical Akademie in the imperial Redoutensaal. Beethoven needs to apply for that first at the High Police Director’s office, and then once permission is granted, he needs to apply to Domenico Barbaja, the lessee of the Kärntnertor Theater and the Redoutensaal, for securing the use of the hall itself.

Brandenburg Letter 1795, Albrecht Letter 348. The text of the decree is found in the Vienna Court and State Archive (General Directorate, Carton 69, Court Opera 1823-1825, Nr.6/1824.)