BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, April 7, 1824
In Saint Petersburg, Prince Nikolai Galitzin has organized the premiere today (March 26, 1824 O.S.) of the full Missa Solemnis, to be performed at a benefit concert for musicians’ widows. Prince Anton Radziwill, who yesterday paid for his subscription copy of the Missa Solemnis, was in attendance at the premiere, which according to Galitzin goes very well indeed. Prince Galitzin will write Beethoven tomorrow about it, and more details will be covered there.
The account of the performance in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr. 22 of May 27, 1824 is as follows:
“Petersburg. The most important thing that was given in this year’s Lenten concerts was a mass by Beethoven. Prince Nikolaus Borissowitsch Gallitzin, who lives here, subscribed personally from the composer to this work, not yet publicly known. He gave it to the local musicians’ widows society, who received it after the prince had also covered the other main expenses, and they performed it to their best ability on March 26th. The impression that this original, sublime masterpiece made on the admirers of Beethoven was enormous. Thanks are given to the most excellent Master, and thanks also to the noble prince, the most active protector of the art of music, for having given us the enjoyment of this great pleasure.”
The Missa Solemnis is performed here on period instruments by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, conducted by Daniel Reuss. Soloists are Carolyn Sampson, Marianne Beate Kielland, Thomas Walker, and David Wilson-Johnson:
Today or tomorrow, Beethoven writes out an invitation to select dilettantes of Vienna, inviting them to take part in his Akademie concert to be held April 22 at the Theater an der Wien. Those who would like to participate are kindly asked to inscribe their names.
A draft of this letter is catalogued as Brandenburg Letter 1808; Anderson Letter H 14. The draft is in the Vienna City and National Library (I.N.150004). The letter (which is not known to survive) is sent to Ferdinand Piringer, who is in charge of inviting and selecting the dilettantes who are to join the professional musicians in the expanded orchestra of the Theater an der Wien. Many of those who signed on were professors of music at the Conservatory, or members of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.
Possibly at the same time, Beethoven writes to his friend Tobias Haslinger, as General Adjustant of Beethoven’s fictitious musical army. Beethoven engages in a little wordplay: There is no need for any other votes (Stimmen) besides those cast here. But the plates have to be corrected according to the enclosed choral parts (also Stimmen). Haslinger and Ferdinand Piringer should select the best musical dilettantes for Beethoven’s Akademie concert: the best 8 violinists, the best 2 violists, and best 2 Contrabass, and the best 2 cellists, even if they are wearing wigs, in order to strengthen his orchestra. Beethoven also notes that the lithographic plates for the chorus parts need to be corrected. He signs the letter, “Amicus Beethoven.”
Brandenburg Letter 1827; Anderson Letter 1277; Albrecht Letter 360. The location of the original is unknown. The text is taken from Otto Deutsch, Zu Beethovens großen Akademien von 1824 in ÖMZ 19 (1864), p.428. While this letter could have been written almost any time during March and April of 1824 as preparations were being made for the Akademie concerts, the choral parts for the Ninth Symphony were lithographed at least by April 17, when Schindler comments that they are nearly illegible. But Beethoven may be referencing the choral parts for the Mass, which had been lithographed in March. What the joke about cellists wearing wigs refers to is unknown.