BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, August 31, 1825

Apparently Carl Czerny comes to visit Beethoven again today, in the company of Parisian publisher Maurice Schlesinger. Czerny had said earlier he was leaving Baden at the end of August, so he may be stopping by to say farewell. There is no record of the visit in the surviving conversation books, however. Given the mention in the following letter, Beethoven may have been busy working and it sounds as if Czerny and Schlesinger were turned away without getting to speak to him.

Later in the day, after Czerny departs, Beethoven writes a letter dated today to Nephew Karl. “Here, dear son, is what Czerni [sic] left here today while I was locked up. It doesn’t seem so after all—the best thing is if you invite Schlesinger to come out with you on Sunday. We can rehearse the quartet later on another day. In this way, many other things could be arranged. I expect a letter from you tomorrow evening at the latest.—Oh, about this distance in all respects. Your faithful father. If you haven’t met him [Schlesinger], please leave a message saying that you will come back.

Brandenburg Letter 2046; Anderson Letter 1419. The original is held in Washington DC at the Library of Congress (ML96.W56B441 Nr.17). What Czerny left and was here forwarded to Karl is unknown. Schlesinger will come again on Sunday, September 4, while Karl and Holz are there. The planned rehearsal of the quartet op.132 was to serve to proofread the parts copied by Wenzel Rampl for Prince Nikolai Galitzin. Karl will speak with Schlesinger and will promptly report back to his uncle, possibly yet today and at the latest tomorrow morning.