BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, May 4, 1824
Today is supposed to be the first full scale rehearsal of the Akademie concert, but one disaster after another strikes, putting the entire event in danger.
Conversation Book 65 begins being used this morning. The book today has 41 leaves, though it originally had at least 46. Five missing pages are bound into Conversation Book 66. Book 65 covers the three highly important days of May 4, 5 and 6 running up to the Akademie concert on Friday, May 7. As usual on such occasions, after Beethoven’s death Schindler adds more than a dozen fraudulent entries throughout this book and for the most part these distortions of the historical record are here ignored. Unfortunately, these fraudulent entries comprise much of what most people “know” about this period of Beethoven’s life.
Today’s genuine entries fill more than half of this book. Schindler comes to Beethoven’s apartment and they go together by carriage for the 10 a.m. rehearsals at the Landständischer Hall. Both the chorus and the orchestra were supposed to rehearse separately today, in preparation for the large rehearsal together. The chorus is there, but to their horror, the orchestra is not. They seem not to have been notified about the rehearsal by Kärntnertor Theater manager Louis Antoine Duport, despite Schindler going to him yesterday to remind him. Schindler says he had also reminded the assistant manager, Joseph Gottdank, so he wouldn’t forget, all to no avail.
In the meantime, Ignaz Dirzka is rehearsing the entire chorus. While Schindler goes to Duport to give him a piece of his mind, he suggests Beethoven go to that chorus rehearsal with violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Schindler also recommends that Karl go to the concert this evening at the Josephstadt Theater, where Schindler is concertmaster, as they will be playing Beethoven’s overture to Fidelio as part of the play Der Feldtrompeter [The Field-Trumpeter.] Schindler departs in the carriage for the theater.
Conductor Michael Umlauf is there, however, and he writes in red pencil [with which he also marked his score of the Ninth Symphony] that no rehearsal can be held today for the orchestra.
After about an hour, Schindler returns, with a tailor. [It is unclear whether this is Beethoven’s summer landlord, Joseph Hörr, or Beethoven’s own tailor. Whoever it is, he does not write in the conversation book.] Schindler has arranged for the orchestra to appear for rehearsal tomorrow [Wednesday, May 5] for rehearsal at 9:30. Beethoven hopes they show up this time. Schindler responds, “It would be nice.”
Schindler and Schuppanzigh discuss a review in the Theater-Zeitung about actor Ferdinand Esslair’s performances in Vienna. “Since I have been here, I have seen very many excellent artists from abroad, but none have been so served by the reviews as Herr Esslair. Schindler saw him in August Wilhelm Iffland’s play Dienstpflicht, and he heard in general that was his best portrayal, and he agrees that no one could act better than Esslair in this role.
Schindler observes that the solo singers from the Musikverein [who rehearsed the works previously] are singing, but the professional Theater vocalists are hardly singing.
The conductor’s score with its different sizes of paper is too unwieldy, and Schindler takes it to be bound by a bookbinder quickly and returns. [Most of the score is written on 16-stave paper, but once the bass starts singing “Freude, schöner Götterfunken,” it shifts primarily to 23-stave paper, though it on occasion reverts to 16.]
While he was out, Schindler also stopped by Beethoven’s attorney, Johann Baptist Bach. If Beethoven wants to repeat the Akademie, Bach could make arrangements for him to be allowed to use the University Hall, at no charge except for the arrangements for the orchestra. Bach approved of Schindler’s plan [seemingly never discussed with Beethoven] to use a simple orchestra, without all the supplemental personnel and the chorus and solo singers as now.
Beethoven is fretting about all of the expenses that are running up for these Akademie concerts. Schindler tries to calm him, saying he may not make much profit on the first concert, but he certainly will not lose money. But it is the only way possible to acquaint the public at large with the greatness of the work, without incurring extraordinary costs. At the second performance, the expenditure of energy is no longer necessary, as the public will already know beforehand what it will hear.
Schindler begins to blame Brother Johann. If he had not made such a mess of things with Duport in the very beginning, this all could have been resolved in three or four weeks. [Schindler is right that Duport resented Johann threatening him, and he intentionally made things difficult as a result. But considering the copying took nearly two months, Schindler’s opinion on how quickly the concert could have been put together is not well-founded. Indeed, things are barely ready for the May 7 concert as it is.] “Before I knew this, Duport complimented me by saying that if, already at the beginning, I had informed him of what you wish and how you wish it, everything would have been in order long ago. Yesterday, he even offered me a place in his box, as often as I can come to the theater.”
Schindler says he will now go to arrange everything at the Redoutensaal [where tomorrow’s rehearsal is to be held.] He asks Beethoven to be ready to go by 9 o’clock tomorrow. “It would really be good if you could look over the whole placement of the orchestra earlier [before the rehearsal.] Rest assured that Umlauf will do everything he can, and even though there are still many things to be desired, they should be of no great importance. Yesterday, I really admired how, at first glance, he knew his way around the score.”
Schindler leaves for the Redoutensaal on his third round of errands for Beethoven today. Left alone at the rehearsal, and apparently able to hear at least some of it, Beethoven jots down some notes in the conversation book:
“In all parts: D.S. with red pencil, before and after.” [This refers to the potentially confusing repeat in the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony. In the Collected Works of Beethoven, the repeat is written out in full to avoid that confusion.]
Violoncello primo: [Beethoven writes a clarification of the articulation in the divisi cello part of the first movement of the Ninth]
g [on bottom line of the bass clef.]
Also with red pencil in all Violins
Look after the Trombones in the Overture yet.
‘angenehmere‘
Preisinger ad libitum
slower
‘und freudenvollere‘
Hand out red pencils.
About the crescendo.
Look after the Violin I in the first Allegro.
Bassi and Contrabassoon taken together in the Mass.
[ditto] taken together in the Overture.”
Beethoven’s notes from Conversation Book 65, 6v-7v are reproduced here, courtesy of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.
One of the 16-year-old sopranos in the chorus, later Frau Grebner, recalled that “Beethoven was placed among the performers at the rehearsals and performance. In front of him, he had a desk on which his manuscript lay….His voice was a sonorous bass, but he spoke only seldom; rather, he mostly read contemplatively in his score. It appeared, as he read along, that he leafed further in the score when the individual movements had been played to the end.” Felix Weingartner, Eine Begegnung mit einer Zeitgenossin Beethovens, Allegemeine Musikzeitung 20 (1900), pp.7-8. Weingartner had met Grebner in Brussels in 1899, when she was 91. Despite her age, her recollections are consistent with these notes taken above.
Schindler returns from the latest group of errands, probably around noon. He was surprised when Beethoven yesterday had mentioned that he had not negotiated a fee with Schuppanzigh. “Is that really true—are you to pay him for this favor?” [Schindler is by implication questioning why he was doing all this work for Beethoven for free, which will cause issues later.] Schuppanzigh had not reserved the second wind section yesterday, so they were not available. Beethoven asks whether he thinks Schuppanzigh did that intentionally. Schindler responds, “That would be an act more vile than all of the dirty business on the part of the Administration and others.”
Duport asks a thousand pardons from Beethoven for the mixup with the orchestra. He blames the assistant manager, Gottdank, who forgot to reserve the orchestra. Beethoven should not, Schindler thinks, suspect anything malicious on their parts. Duport is personally arranging everything for tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock.
Schuppanzigh adds that it is best if the chorus continues to rehearse diligently today, even without the orchestra. The amateur orchestral musicians have shown up at noon, expecting to join the professional orchestra, which is not here. There are not enough of them to have a rehearsal. Schuppanzigh will ask them, in Beethoven’s name, to appear tomorrow at 9 at the Redoutensaal, and they are sent home.
Umlauf writes with his red pencil, “stesso tempo.” [The same time. Theodore Albrecht suggests that Umlauf probably means he wanted an hour or two with the professionals alone tomorrow, before being joined by the dilettantes, as was supposed to happen today.]
More bad news strikes, this time potentially disastrous: Bass soloist Joseph Preisinger cannot sing the part [probably the very high baritone notes] required of him. Beethoven must be beside himself, since the bass recitative that sets up the choral Finale to the Ninth is utterly critical. What is to be done, with only three days before the concert? Schindler says he will go see whether bass Joseph Seipelt can fill in on short notice. “I hope that he will take it with pleasure.” They also need more choral parts, and one more copy should be made of each part. Schindler says he will stop and visit alto Caroline Unger and soprano Henriette Sontag, and let them know what’s going on and that their presence will not be required today, but instead tomorrow morning. He asks Beethoven to wait for him at the Hall.
Schindler goes out on yet another round of errands, and returns about an hour later. He reports that Unger is sitting at home with a bandaged throat. Beethoven expresses his concern about her being able to sing in the Akademie, but Schindler assures him that she will be better by tomorrow. [In fact, she sings the part of Edoardo in Rossini’s Edoardo e Cristina this evening at the Kärntnertor Theater, so the bandage must have been purely precautionary.] The fiacre is hired until 2 o’clock, and it is now already 1:30. Beethoven, Schindler and Schuppanzigh drive to the restaurant Zum wilden Mann in the Prater, while they still have use of the carriage.
Once there, Schindler asks whether Beethoven wants the fixed price menu, or to select individual dishes. [Beethoven appears to opt for the individual dishes, as they have baked chicken and young goose.] Schindler thinks that of all the singers, no one is participating more happily than Henriette Sontag. “She was already ready to go when she saw me coming with the carriage and already met me on the steps. But the sad face as she heard everything–and she assures you that you have nothing unpleasant to expect on her part.”
The trio enjoy the wine. Schindler believes that it is best if it is bought directly from the vintner, and then it is surely pure. He suggests a second bottle, or perhaps a Thaler wine. Beethoven thinks better of it, leading Schindler to comment, “Only butchers and such handworkers drink that wine; so great men like you must remain firmly on the ground.”
Schuppanzigh jokes that if there were not a Schindler, the concert could not be given at all. “Schindler deranges [derangirt] everything.” Schindler replies, “or ar-ranges [arrangiert] everything.”
At Sunday’s concert, flutist Karl Scholl’s walking stick was stolen. There were nothing but dilettantes in the group. Schuppanzigh jokes that Ferdinand Piringer should be held responsible and castrated, as he was in charge of that group.
Schuppanzigh has his summer series of quartet concerts planned out. They will be at Benko’s coffee house in the Prater. Beethoven asks whether having these concerts in a remote place would be profitable. Schuppanzigh says, “One must support Art, even when he himself has nothing to eat.”
Schuppanzigh tells an anecdote about poor service, suggesting that they may have been ignored by the waitstaff for a long while: Ignaz Castelli, a poet and playwright who was one of those behind the Petition to Beethoven, went into a tavern with a couple of guests, and for a long time the waiter brought them nothing. Castelli complained to the proprietor, who told his waiters, “You scoundrels, what are you doing? You can’t serve such a group of lousy guests even once.” Schindler notes that this tavern proprietor is known to be an idiot, and there are several anecdotes like this.
Schindler, who typically only eats one meal per day, comments that Schuppanzigh eats more at his evening meal than at mid-day dinner, and this affects his agility. Schuppanzigh says that fried chicken is unheard of in Berlin. If someone eats that for a long time, then they are very healthy. But since Schuppanzigh went to Berlin, now fried chickens are also known there. Schindler adds, “Again, proof that the Viennese spoil good taste everywhere!” Schuppanzigh admits that he eats fried chicken every evening, and goes through 14 in a week.
Beethoven asks when Schuppanzigh was in Berlin, and he answers, 1817. Beethoven asks whether while he was there he knew Prince Radziwill [who subscribed to the Missa Solemnis]. Schuppanzigh says, yes, he was at the prince’s place in Posen, where he is governor, but only later on.
Schuppanzigh likes the wine. In Russia, they only drink French wine, and a bottle of good wine costs one silver ruble.
Schuppanzigh asks about Count Moritz Lichnowsky and what he is doing. Beethoven tells him that Lichnowsky wants nothing more to do with him. Schuppanzigh notes that he was “absolutely astonished when I heard that.”
Schindler is horrified when the bill comes. “Let’s not come to the Prater anymore; it cost 12 florins 3 kreutzers.” Schuppanzigh laughs it off. “Schindler finds the bill too high. He forgets, however, that he himself quaffed 2 tankards of wine.” Schindler says “That must be stricken from the Minutes; I will not allow it there.” Beethoven pays the bill with a 20 florin note, and received 7 florins 57 kreutzers in change.
Schindler’s next entry from its tone sounds as if it might be falsified, but given Schuppanzigh’s response, it appears to be genuine and Schindler has indeed just had too much to drink: “I heard that a certain Beethoven will give an Akademie on Friday, and no matter how much they try, the preparations just won’t go forward. The Devil take it! But it must go, he says. That’s what I hear! Master! Sir! I tell you something and follow me — how shall I have the poster printed (for it will be done already today). Shall I add: Member of the Royal Academies of Stockholm and Amsterdam? Tell me very quickly. What great titles!!”
Schuppanzigh answers, “I am not for it. If Beethoven were Dictator and President of all the Academies of the World, intelligent people would view these titles as vanity.” Schindler agrees: “The name Beethoven shines in all its simplicity and without adding all the most brilliant titles.” When Beethoven objects, Schindler continues to lay it on thickly: “It is well known to all the world what and who you are. Your descendants receive no benefit from this.” [Beethoven’s titles are not hereditary, is what Schindler appears to mean. The personal invitations simply said, “Herr L. v. Beethoven.”]
Beethoven, probably embarrassed, changes the subject to Schuppanzigh’s concert last Sunday, May 1 in the Augarten. Schuppanzigh says, “the public could hardly wait for the Finale of the [Fifth] Symphony, without breaking out in the noisiest enthusiasm….The public was shouting. A musical layman told [me] yesterday that nothing in his entire life had made such a great impression on him as this Symphony.”
The convivial talk, food and drink last until 5:30, when Schindler must depart for the Theater in the Josephstadt. But first he needs to see Duport, in order to arrange for the poster to be printed tomorrow. Schuppanzigh remains after Schindler leaves. Schuppanzigh suggests that Beethoven would be better served by dismissing Schindler. Violinist Joseph Böhm asked Schindler why Beethoven didn’t give his commissions to someone in whom he has confidence. But at least Schindler is very active.
Schuppanzigh confides that during the symphony, Ferdinand Piringer sat next to him. “So I have seen what kind of weak piece of work Piringer is.” Beethoven says he’s only an amateur musician. Schuppanzigh scoffs, “the best of them is worthless.”
Schuppanzigh bemoans his inability to get a permanent position. He was told he might get a position at the Hofkapelle as violinist, but it is still unresolved with the Emperor. He needs to talk to Benko about his quartet concerts, and asks whether Beethoven is going into the City. Beethoven is not, but accompanies Schuppanzigh part of the way to Benko’s, southwest of Zum wilden Mann, and then walks west to the Franz Bridge and back home.
Nephew Karl is awaiting him there, and it seems he did not go to the theater as Schindler suggested this morning. He says the announcement for the Akademie will appear on Thursday, May 6. They appear to go to the restaurant downstairs, and they run into Wiener Zeitung editor Joseph Bernard. He notes that Vincenz Hauschka, one of the founders of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and one of Beethoven’s closest friends, says he is requisitioning everything needed that is in Vienna [presumably for the Akademie.]
Karl, who apparently has been charmed by Unger and Sontag [both only a couple years older than him], says “The pretty girls will surely sing your work successfully.” Uncle Ludwig notes that Karl has an eye for the ladies. Karl responds, “The Bagatelles [the frivolous girls] are quite pretty.” Uncle Ludwig teases his fondness for them, and Karl shrugs it off with “Live and let live.” Karl is surprised to learn the concert is to be Friday the 7th, since he thought it was to be Thursday the 6th.
An unknown person encounters them, saying that “The day before yesterday we were at the birthplace of the Pastorale Symphony.” [He may mean the valley between Nussdorf and Heiligenstadt, which according to the always unreliable Schindler was the inspiration for the Scene by the Brook movement.] He also observes that Domenico Barbaja [the tenant of the Court Opera] has been bound too closely with the Court.
Beethoven suggests that Karl supervise the sales of tickets. Karl thinks that won’t be necessary. Uncle Ludwig says that someone must supervise how the seats are allocated and the money received. Karl admits they are counted out in such a manner. If it is to be Friday, he can do it.
Karl mentions that a prospective maid was here again today while Uncle Ludwig was out. He thinks it would be very difficult for her to please him, though. She will come again tomorrow. Bernard thinks the beer here is too strong. Karl takes care of the bill for the refreshments, and that concludes this lengthy and frustrating day.
Conversation Book 65, 1r-23r.
Another and shorter notice for Beethoven’s Akademie benefit concert this Friday, this time accurate in its details other than the last minute substitution of bass Joseph Preisinger, appears in today’s Wiener Zeitschrift (Nr.54) at 468:
“Grand Musical Academy of Herrn Ludwig van Beethoven
“This will take place on Friday the 7th of this month in the Imperial Court theater at the Kärntnertor. The pieces of music, all from the composer’s latest works, are the following:
“1) A grand Overture, 2) three large hymns with solo and choral voices, 3) grand Symphony with solo and choral voices in the Finale on Schiller’s Ode to Joy. The solos are to be performed by Mlles. Sontag and Unger, Herrn Haitzinger and Preisinger. Herr van Beethoven will be in in charge of the whole thing with Herrn Umlauf and Schuppanzigh. As a favor to the famous composer, the most distinguished members of the musical society will reinforce the orchestra and the choir.
“It would be superfluous to add to the wishes and expectations of such a rich assembly. No friend of German music and no admirer of the Master, who is greatly esteemed amongst all of the educated nations of Europe, would willingly give up the great pleasure that this evening offers.”
Meanwhile, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde puts on a concert today that includes a performance of Beethoven’s Opferlied, op.121b. The review of the concert in the London musical journal Harmonicon of September 1825, Nr.XXI at 172, states: “With respect to this composition of Beethoven, which is one of his latest productions of the kind, it is simple, pious, without pretension, and speaks at once to the heart, but from that very circumstance it created but little sensation.”