BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, August 3, 1825
Amateur Dutch cellist Samson Moses de Boer (1771-1839) visits Beethoven in Baden. He introduces himself as “de Boer, member of the Academy in Amsterdam – Visual Arts.” [That is, the Royal Academy of Visual Arts.] “Yesterday, I had quartets with Herr Schuppanzigh.” With him is Moritz Edersheim. a Jewish banker who lives in Vienna, but was born in the Netherlands.
Beethoven is interested in whether his works are played often in Holland. “Your Fidelio has given great pleasure in Amsterdam. Your truest quartets provide great pleasure.” He thinks they are in sublime style.
“I made the trip today expressly to see you.” [According to the Kurliste, de Boer has actually been in Baden since July 22, presumably taking the cure at the spas.]
Beethoven asks what other operas have been performed in Amsterdam recently. Zemire and Azor by Louis Spohr, de Boer answers. “One sees it with great pleasure.” In Amsterdam, there is a war over Rossini among the music lovers. Beethoven and de Boer agree that Rossini displays a certain genius, but without true erudition. He “allows someone to die singing a bravura aria.” Beethoven remarks on Rossini’s remarkable quantity of production. De Boer answers, “He would have been greater if he had written less; He who speaks a great deal is a fool.”
Edersheim asks whether Beethoven has heard anything from Charles Neate in England. [Neate had invited Beethoven to come to England this spring, but they could not work out the details and then Beethoven fell ill.]
Beethoven asks de Boer about his cello playing. “I am a dilettante; everything for pleasure. I want to enjoy. I want to consume Art, not live from Art.” Beethoven probably makes a comment about the Academy of Visual Arts, since de Boer responds, “Painting and Music are sisters. I am sorry for those who have no feeling for these divine gifts. Eating, sleeping, drinking, and sex are also enjoyed by cattle. Taking pleasure in Art is a gift of God to Mankind.”
Beethoven is impressed by de Boer’s German. He proudly answers that he speaks 6 languages.
De Boer presents Beethoven with a portrait of William I, the King of the Netherlands since 1815, which he had received directly from the King. Beethoven in return gives him a portrait of himself. De Boer is pleased at this gift, and responds, “You owe all music lovers a portrait.” De Boer says he will put it in the best place in the room with his paintings. He assures Beethoven every musician in Amsterdam will come to visit him to see it.
They discuss composer Hieronymous Payer, who is currently a kapellmeister in Amsterdam. De Boer comments that Payer has spirit, but one needs to combine the spiritual gift with wisdom.
If Beethoven comes to Amsterdam, de Boer insists that he must stay at his place. Beethoven twice asks de Boer to repeat his name. As a memento of their meeting, Beethoven writes out for him the Canon in A for two cellos, WoO 35, which is here performed by Sofia Kim and Susie Kroh:
Beethoven still does not quite understand de Boer’s name, and he dedicates the piece to “de Boger,” with today’s date. De Boer is deeply touched by Beethoven’s reception, and de Boer’s ability to express his gratitude is too weak.
He tells Beethoven that in every city, the Netherlanders promote literature and painting a great deal, but music not so much. The fine arts have professors and scholars, as do literature and medicine. But there are no Dutch composers, and performers focus on pleasantries rather than fundamental discipline.
Beethoven asks whether his Nephew Karl might be able to take a position in business in the Netherlands. De Boer says it would not work unless he is able to speak Dutch, and that is difficult for a foreigner. [De Boer refers to Karl as Beethoven’s cousin.]
Edersheim concludes the visit, “You have just composed a piece of music, and since I know how unpleasant it is to be disturbed, I bid you farewell.”
Conversation Book 91, 32r-42v. Samson de Boer also left a brief account of the visit in a March 15, 1827 letter he wrote to the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, advocating for young artists. The relevant portion of this letter follows: “In further support of my arguments as to how precious the time of the artist must be considered, I take the liberty of somewhat stretching your honor’s patience by describing two cases which happened to me personally with artists, whom one can call the Rubens of our century. And although these are musicians, I can place them on the same level as with painting, because, in the first case, the passions are transmitted through the sense of hearing while the second mentioned transmits the passions through the sense of sight.”
[De Boer first describes a visit to cellist Bernhard Romberg, who insisted that he must always practice; when one hears him in concert, that is only the culmination of a lifetime of practicing.]
“I had a similar case with the famous great composer Herr Louis van Beethoven. I visited him in the little town of Baden, three hours above Vienna. (I had to write everything to this artist, because he told me at the first word that he was completely deprived of everything that concerns the sense of hearing.) After we had talked for some time about Art, this great man showed me a little pocket-book, lined in the style of music, and filled on several pages with little notes in pencil. ‘Behold my walk,’ he said to me.”
“‘If I have to go out once or twice in eight days in the summer to preserve my health, this pocket book will be my assistance, should a good idea occur to me. The life of an Artist is short to be able to reach his goal, and a well-forgotten hour seldom comes again, and I would not wish to be idle in my Art for a single day for all the money of Lichtenstein.’ (One of the best-known and richest noblemen in Austria.)”
“Behold, gentlemen, two weighty witnesses as to how precious time is to an artist, even when one has risen to such a high degree, so how much more then should the beginner practice himself unceasingly, if he wishes to make even the slightest progress.”
The autograph of this letter is in Amsterdam, Gemeente-archief, Patr. Arch. 681 Nr.20. Since it was written fewer than two years after the visit, it is more contemporaneous and thus likely more accurate than most such accounts, which often tended to grow in the telling before they were written down. The pocket sketchbook that Beethoven showed de Boer is almost certainly the Egerton 2795 pocket sketchbook, which he is currently using for ideas in the quartet op.130, and which by this time would be nearly filled.