BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, April 20, 1825
Nephew Karl comes to Uncle Ludwig’s apartment fairly early, having already come from Dr. Anton Braunhofer. It’s 7 a.m. when Karl arrives. He tells his uncle that Braunhofer will be coming shortly and will prescribe something different for Ludwig’s persistent intestinal distress. Brother Johann may have arrived with Karl. He suggests that Ludwig wrap the thick blanket within the thin one, since the thick blankets are much warmer and hold the heat longer.
Dr. Braunhofer arrives, probably mid-morning. He counsels patience to Ludwig. “An illness does not go away in one day.” In addition to some medication, he gives Ludwig a different prescribed diet, so he won’t be hungry. Ludwig is concerned that he hasn’t had a bowel movement recently. The doctor tells him “That will come by itself once you are healthy. One must not compensate for Nature and always take pills. Also, it is not necessary to have a bowel movement every day, or as often as you believe.”
The prescribed menu includes milk, which Ludwig does not want to drink, at least while he’s living in the City [presumably because it is harder to keep fresh than when he is living in the country]. Braunhofer tells him, “You are not the first person whom I’ve heard to talk that way. The type of nourishment sets the course for everything. Put aside your prejudice against milk as nourishment in the country. Just have patience for a while and then you will be satisfied with the results. Baths with Danube water, country air.” Braunhofer is pleased that Ludwig’s temperature is already going down from his fever.
Braunhofer tells Beethoven he will be back again today, “not because of your illness, but rather to see you and reassure you.” Ludwig tells the doctor he will be very pleased to see him again, and Braunhofer jokes, “That’s why you are the great Genius.”
Brother Johann is going to see the business broker Johann Neumann in the Leopoldstadt. He expects to be back in half an hour since he is taking his carriage.
While Johann is gone, Karl encourages his uncle to eat, but he’s not hungry. “Don’t you want an egg?” Karl asks. There is only one piece of chocolate left, because the maid always needs three. Otherwise it’s too thin in the water. Karl will get some more and bring it back with him when he goes to run errands.
Johann returns briefly, and Ludwig asks him to go read the newspapers and fill him in on what is happening. Johann does so, but the only important new development is that the Spaniards are completely defeated in the New World; the remaining 8,000 men, along with the viceroy and all the generals, have surrendered and will be shipped out to Spain. [All of the remaining Spanish forces in Peru had surrendered to Simón Bolivar on December 9, 1824.]
Ludwig asks about the quartet op.127, and how it is being received. Johann tells him that it was played last Friday, April 15, at the Court Agent Dembscher’s, by Joseph Mayseder and the cellist Merk. It was played twice, as has become customary, and in the second rendition, the host Dembscher played the cello himself. “I’ve spoken with several people who say that nothing more beautiful of this type has ever been heard, and everyone in the whole City is entirely unanimous that this is the most beautiful quartet that has ever been written.”
Joseph Böhm has asked, Johann says, that if Ludwig will permit, he will give a second Akademie concert with it since he has received many requests to do so. Ludwig asks when Johann talked to Böhm. “He was here yesterday, and inquired about your health.”
Later this afternoon, Dr. Braunhofer returns to visit his patient, as he had promised. “You are significantly better again. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have another bowel movement today.” Ludwig mentions that he is having Karl get some more chocolate to have with water. “Tomorrow morning you must take your chocolate with milk.” Ludwig grouses about that, really not wanting to drink milk while he’s in the City. The doctor is unconcerned. “If I were not certain that you would soon be quite healthy again without much medicine, I would advise you to call someone else.”
Probably after Braunhofer departs, Karl returns with the chocolate. Composer and violinist Joseph Panny (1794-1838) told Johann that Mayseder’s performance of the quartet “went superbly.”
Ludwig’s appetite is returning, and Karl cautions him not to eat much in the evening; he will sleep better that way.
Karl says that the instructions are for Ludwig to take half a coffee cup of medicine every two hours, and then once right before going to bed. Ludwig asks what it is for, and Johann the apothecary tells him it is to soothe the pain.
Conversation Book 87, 19v-23v.
A notice is published in the Intelligenzblatt supplement to Schott’s musical journal Cäcilia, Intelligenzblatt Nr.7 at 43-45, under today’s date, inviting subscriptions to “the Three Newest Great Works of L. van Beethoven, namely, 1. Missa solennis, D major, Opus 123; 2. Grand Overture, C major, Op. 124; and 3. Symphony with Choruses, Op.125.”
The Mass will appear in full score, individual parts, and in piano reduction. The Consecration of the House Overture and the Symphony will similarly be in full score and individual parts [no mention is made of Czerny’s two- and four-hand piano arrangements of the Overture]. All will be issued in the course of this year, in the most correct engraved versions, on fine paper. One may subscribe for all of the works together, or merely one, and in any combination of forms. Since the works are not yet fully engraved, the exact number of folios likewise is undetermined. But the publisher will adhere to the principle that the printed folios (i.e., four pages) will not exceed ten Rhenish kreutzers in cost. The subscription period will remain open until the end of October, at which time a significantly higher sales price will take effect.
“The Spirit of Music has been particularly favorable to our times. Hardly has one shining star gone out in the musical heavens, hardly have the tones of a gifted composer become silent, when there shines another spirit to replace the lamented loss. Mozart and Haydn vanished, then Providence gave us a Beethoven, who has followed their immortal works with his own, fully worthy of sharing admiration alongside them. The originality of his harmony, charm and appeal of his modulations are unsurpassable and flow unalloyed from the fullness of a fertile genius.” (Translation by Theodore Albrecht, Letters to Beethoven III, Nr.404 at 92-93.)
Also in this issue of the Intelligenzblatt for the Cäcilia, at 45-46, under today’s date, Schott separately reprints Beethoven’s warning about the pirated edition of Trautwein in Berlin, arranged by C.F. Henning. Schott then adds its own commentary immediately afterwards. “Herr van Beethoven has publicly warned against the illegal as well as incorrect edition of a four-hand piano reduction of his Festival Overture made by Herr Henning issued by Trautwein in Berlin. Not to mention the obvious, that such an advance publication is even more disgraceful than a pirate reprint, we notify the honored public only that we already acquired the exclusive right to publish this work from the famous composer long ago, and that a reduction of it for four hands, made by the well-known piano virtuoso Herr Czerny under the eyes of the composer, is already being printed by us. We are therefore in the position, as the legitimate publisher, to offer a more worthy version of this ingenious original work than the contraband by Herr Henning. B. Schott’s Sons.” (Translation by Theodore Albrecht, Letters to Beethoven III, Nr.404A at 94.) Since there is another notice in this edition of the Intelligenzblatt that bears the date April 23, it was probably distributed a couple days after that.
Today’s Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.16) at 262 includes a report on concerts in Nuremberg between Easter of 1824 into the first part of 1825. Among the works performed there at the municipal theater were two older Beethoven symphonies, including the Sinfonia eroica. City music director Blumröder also gave a concert for his own benefit that was a good success and prominently featured Beethoven’s music to Egmont, op.84 (with declamation by Mosengeil).