BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, November 18, 1823 (approximately)

Beethoven makes some shopping notes: He needs a pencil and a gray curtain, and needs to visit a book-binder. What he intends to bind is unclear from these entries; he may be thinking of buying conversation books.

Conversation Book 45, 8r. Leaves 8 and 9 of this conversation book are on a light blue paper that seems to have possibly been stitched into the book after it was used, and hence is out of order.

At mid-day dinner around 2 p.m., Nephew Karl mentions that he spoke to his old Greek teacher, Professor Pleugmackers today. He said that in last Saturday’s Theater-Zeitung there is a description of Uncle Ludwig’s domestic life, in which Karl is also mentioned. [Allgemeine Theater-Zeitung 16, Nr. 137, November 15, 1823 at 548, described in detail on that date.] The signature of the author is S______l. Pleugmackers assumes that the author is Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829). Karl has his doubts. [The actual author is Johann Chrysostom Sporschil (1800-1863), who admitted his authorship in a footnote to Beethoven’s obituary.] The professor had seen the article in the coffee house.

Pleugmackers “was just amazed that someone did not ask you for permission, as is appropriate.” It also talks about his life in the country; Karl expects it will not say much of substance beyond that Ludwig takes long walks, composes while walking, loves Nature, etc. [Karl’s supposition is correct.]

Karl mentions that he was called upon in Mathematics class this morning. Since it’s about 2:30, Karl will need to go now to get a copy of the Theater-Zeitung. Or he could pick it up later (probably from the newspaper’s offices) and bring it with him when he comes later.

Conversation Book 45, 32r-32v.

Today’s Wiener Zeitschrift at 1137 includes the final installment of the magazine’s lengthy review of Weber’s new opera Euryanthe. The unnamed critic is particularly harsh here about Weber’s recitatives, comparing them unfavorably to Mozart’s and Beethoven’s, which are put forward as examples of pleasing “clarity, brevity and naturalness in every syllable.”

The Vienna Lithographic Institute announces the publication of the new issue of the musical entertainment paper The New Amphion, containing among other items a new Rondoletto scherzando for pianoforte composed by “Carlo Czerny,” Beethoven’s former pupil. Wiener Zeitung at 1071. [No opus number is indicated, but this is almost certainly his opus 53, Rondoletto scherzando in C major.]

Publisher Anton Diabelli also capitalizes on Rossini’s popularity in Vienna with a new series of Rossini Repertory for the Young, with simplified versions of popular selections, including the overtures, from Rossini’s operas such as La Gazza Ladra, Cenerentola, Barber of Seville, Tancred, Otello, The Italian Girl in Algiers and others. New volumes are promised to be published weekly. Wiener Zeitung at 1072.