BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, September 6, 1825
Beethoven makes a shopping and errand list:
+Sealing wax.
+Repair Karl’s mattress.
+Cotton. [Baumwolle]
+Tree-full. [Baumvolle, a small pun for his own entertainment]
+Pay the tailor.
Beethoven also writes a letter today to Nephew Karl: “Dear son! I can well see how difficult it is for everyone to come here. You can order them all to Schlesinger’s rooms on Friday morning, and I’ll come to the City as well. If something is missing I will need to be there. That’s the best way, and then the story is over. Yesterday, too, he was here, alone, and said that he would pay for the quartet as soon as you handed it over to him. Entre nous il est pourtant Juif— [Between us, he is Jewish nevertheless.]”
“It’s enough if they just do the new one. [Schlesinger had also wanted to hear the op.127 quartet, and Beethoven had given him the parts.] You’ll see how it works best. If they want to do it Thursday, then I’ll come then as well. Just make sure that the arrangement is finished as quickly as possible, so that the money can be sent straight away to Peters in Leipzig, whom you absolutely do not have to name. Schles. doesn’t think he will be in Vienna on Sundays any more. So there’s great haste. Incidentally, the ducats should be in gold, since there is reference to others—Just write to the old woman today, it doesn’t need anything beyond a proofreading correction anyway. Don’t hesitate, and pull yourself together, if the old woman arrives in time. The best thing will probably be for you to arrange everything on Friday in the City, where I’ll definitely be coming then. Has Schles. delivered the quartet (the first) [op.127] to you? There was only a little fuss, you see. It’s difficult to get payment.” [Beethoven had given the parts for op.127 to Schlesinger for one of the upcoming performances in his rooms at the hotel.]
“Your letter just arrived, so Holz won’t arrive until Thursday, and who knows whether that’s for certain?”
“Your letter changes everything now, since Friday has been set. Whether it is to be here or in Vienna, Holz will certainly indicate. But if he doesn’t come, then I’ll come to the City on Friday. The main thing is only with Schlesinger. We can’t wait any longer. If he waits for the rehearsal first, he shouldn’t have it at all. Yesterday he said again that he wouldn’t sell the quartet here after all. I said that it was a complete matter of indifference to me.”
“May the Lord bless you and me, your faithful father.”
“I’ll just leave the previous writing regarding Schlesing.”
Brandenburg Letter 2054; Anderson Letter 1429. Schlesinger was staying at the inn “Zum wilden Mann” in Vienna. The first performance of op.132 does take place on Friday, September 9, with a small group of invited guests, and not a public performance. There will also be the planned proofreading run-through, probably also in Schlesinger’s rooms, tomorrow. The op.127 quartet is not played on either occasion, but Schlesinger will get to hear it before he leaves Vienna. The 80 ducats to be received for op.132 would be just sufficient to pay off the debt owed to publisher C.F. Peters in Leipzig. The original of this letter is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 21, and can be seen here:
Beethoven probably today writes an undated follow-up letter to Nephew Karl: “Since you don’t have the money from the Archduke etc, which is a lot, the 100 fl. C.M. enclosed here must be used for purchasing necessities and to ensure that everything else reaches me safely—unfortunately, you will have to come with me to the tailor—if you need something for the bill, take 2 fl. from it. ade.”
Brandenburg Letter 2055; Anderson Letter 1435. Because this letter lacks a salutation and signature, it probably was an attachment to another letter, and the one above is a likely candidate. On the front of the slip of paper, Beethoven wrote out a draft certificate for the purchase of the two quartets op.132 and op.130 from Maurice Schlesinger, so it dates from about this time. The payment from Archduke Rudolph for Beethoven’s annuity was supposed to be due by August 25, but for some reason payment was delayed until September. The original letter is not known to exist, and the text is from the transcription by Thayer in TDR V p.251. The original was then in the Artaria collection in Vienna.
Sir George Smart today meets piano maker Joseph Ries, the brother of Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries, whom he calls “a very pleasant young man….I went to Ries’s lodgings and played a duet with him and was much pleased with an organ stop to a grand pianoforte in his room made by Amberg.” Ries shows him the Emperor’s stables, which can hold 700 horses, and tours him around the city. Smart leaves letters for Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whom he had met at Steiner’s music shop, and for violinists Joseph Böhm and Joseph Mayseder. “I also left a letter with C. Czerny, who was at dinner when we called…” Cox and Cox, Leaves from the Journal of Sir George Smart (London, 1907), pp.101-102.