BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, January 4, 1826

Probably early this morning, Beethoven sends a short undated note to unpaid assistant Karl Holz that follows up on their conversations of the last two days. “Just read this, here is the reply that befits this impudent woman. [Johanna van Beethoven, Nephew Karl’s mother.] —Just hand over the letter without engaging with her—”

“I ask you to let yourself be discharged tomorrow, and then come at lunchtime. For today, there is still the business of finding [publisher Maurice] Schlesinger’s true address [in Paris, to complain that Schlesinger’s banker Biedermann had refused to pay Beethoven for the quartet op.130 as Schlesinger had instructed.] Farewell, I hope to hear from you.”

Brandenburg Letter 2104; Anderson Letter 1467. The original letter (though missing the enclosure to Johanna) is in the Bonn Beethovenhaus, BH 34, and can be seen here:

https://www.beethoven.de/de/media/view/5320592727212032/scan/0

Ludwig also writes a very short note dated today to Nephew Karl: “I am joining you this evening, on the 4th of January. e je porte avec moi aussi l’argent pour votre maître [And I am also carrying the money for your tutor.] Pour M. Charles de Beethoven, along with umbrella and frock coat.”

Brandenburg Letter 2105; Anderson Letter 1465. The source is Alfred Kalischer’s Neue Beethovenbriefe, Berlin-Leipzig 1902, Nr.74, p.71; the location of the original is unknown.

Beethoven writes an errand list:

+Coffee with Karl.
+Black string.
+Pension.

Holz meets with Beethoven, either at his apartment or at the coffee house. He says he delivered the letter to Johanna as instructed. He didn’t see her this time. He says he probably have should have seen her personally, but he had her told that he didn’t have any further instructions and he left. “To avoid her questions, I said that I seldom come to see you.” Ludwig asks when he saw Johanna last, and he answers several days ago.

He does have Maurice Schlesinger’s current address, Rue Richelieu No.107, Paris. [Actually, that is Schlesinger’s prior address; he has been at No.97 Rue Richelieu since 1824.]

Holz mentions that he just talked to Brother Johann; he has been in Vienna for 3 days. He said that he now wants to feed his spirit.

For the money Ludwig spent yesterday for the rehearsal, they could have eaten at Widtmann’s expensive restaurant; there was enough food for 8 people. “The worst thing about it is that you don’t endure warmed-up dishes easily; this way everything is superfluous, as good as thrown out.”

Holz turns to the Grosse Fuge, which gave them such difficulties yesterday. “The triplets in all the parts are difficult because it essentially depends upon clarity by a hairsbreadth. I will stand for every note, if I can rehearse it.” Beethoven makes a suggestion, but Holz says that would be difficult to manage with the bow in a fast tempo because of the leaps over a string. “But I believe that if I can practice it, it will go easily. The unusualness of playing such passages creates a seemingly greater difficulty at first than actually lies within them.”

Holz makes a suggestion that it would be very easy, if it could be played this way, and he gives two short musical examples on 21v, seen here. The first is a suggestion for bar 270; the second is bar 142, both of the second violin part (which is what Holz played). Beethoven asks why he didn’t play it that way. “I would not have dared it, because fundamentally, it is the figure of the theme.” Holz asks whether it might not be changed. Schuppanzigh at one point took a B-flat that doesn’t belong there. Staccato, or non ligato, also makes it easier to play.

Holz asks whether Nephew Karl is aware Johann is back in the City. Ludwig says he hasn’t seen Karl. Holz suggests he may be studying at home.

Holz comments that “It is usually true that people who are indifferent to music are heartless.”

Nephew Karl joins Holz and Uncle Ludwig. He suggests that they should write to Schlesinger and tell him that if he doesn’t reply right away and authorize Biedermann to pay, then Ludwig will have to give the quartet to someone else. Holz [probably suggesting Mathias Artaria publish the quartet] thinks that would be preferable over the other two [Schlesinger and Schott’s].

Holz says that Schuppanzigh could not understand the beat in the Adagio of the quartet. Holz mentions that he showed the Opferlied op.121b, Bundeslied op.122, and the still-unnamed Consecration of the House Overture to Dr. Dominik Vivenot, of the medical faculty at the University. Holz would like to hear the Bundeslied with the cadenza for clarinet. “I really must laugh about the ingenious passage in the Bundeslied where the clarinet has fun.” If Beethoven has a copy handy, he’ll show how well they proofread out there in Mainz.

Holz asks whether Beethoven has seen the latest edition of the Musikalische Eilpost, a magazine that is largely advertising, like the Intelligenzblatt of the Wiener Zeitung. Karl remarks that the whole city is saying Uncle Ludwig turns Steiner’s music shop into a beer house. [This is probably a reference to the boozy New Year’s Eve party held there a few days ago.]

The magical farce Die Zauberschminke by Friedrich August Kanne has failed because the libretto [by journalist Adolf Bäuerle] was so bad. The music is good, and Kanne had hoped much from it, but he is now taken quite aback, through no fault of his own. But his actual specialty is journalism [Kanne had been editor of the Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung until it shut down at the end of 1824.]

Beethoven wonders when he will hear back from Schlesinger. Holz tells him he cannot expect a reply before 3 weeks are up, though Biedermann may have ways of hearing back more quickly. C.F. Peters would be another option, Holz thinks [he seems unaware that Peters refused the quartet, and opted in December to receive back his 360 florins instead, suggesting that this rejection has badly embarrassed Beethoven.] Schott’s doesn’t deserve another note from Beethoven. Mathias Artaria will pay Beethoven 80 ducats on the spot. He would have taken op.130 as well, if Beethoven hadn’t promised it to Schlesinger the day before. “I would rather speak with Biedermann, and if he doesn’t declare himself ready to pay, then I will go to Artaria; because it is better than if a bank share had to be sold because you were short of money.” [This comment suggests that Beethoven is feeling particularly cash poor, which makes his lavish spread for the rehearsal yesterday even more questionable.] “They are cleverer than the Viennese. The ones here could also do it this way if they understood their business.”

Holz points out that Wallishauser protected himself against pirate reprinting when he published Grillparzer’s Ottokar. “If he can do it, why don’t our music dealers do it too?” Artaria asked again if he could get something of Beethoven’s. “I just believe that the obligation to Schlesinger thus far is broken because his business representative [Biedermann] doesn’t pay on the spot, as it was established at that time. That may surely also be a music dealer’s trick.”

Talk turns to the possible Akademie concerts. It is not necessary to write something new; the Missa Solemnis is enough. But it needs to be completely copied out.

Holz asks whether he can take the parts for the new quartet with him for proofreading. He says he can do it more comfortably at home. He asks again whether he can take the score or the parts of the quartet with him. He has held on to the score.

Conversation Book 101, 18v-31r.

Today’s Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.1) contains several reviews of Beethoven works. They begin on the first page, with a brief review of the Arietta “Ich war bei Chloen ganz allein” with piano accompaniment, op.121, printed by Schott in Mainz. “An outdated text in narrative form, of little lyrical significance and, strictly speaking, not at all suitable for composition. The melody is not new, but fits the text. The treatment of the individual phrases is, however, clever and also comical, so that instead of singing, one often has to laugh out loud….The end is so long and the poem in the final analysis is far too trivial. Interdum dormitat bonus Homerus. [Sometimes even good Homer sleeps. The song reviewed is Der Kuss, which today bears the opus number of 128.]

On the second through fourth pages we find a more substantial and rather harsh review of Carl Czerny’s piano arrangement of Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture, op.124, also published by Schott. The fanciful review is in the form of a letter to Beethoven, whom the author refers to as his Uncle, which develops into a reported dialogue between the author and an admirer of Beethoven named Gustav. The writer recounts playing through the piano arrangement of the overture for Gustav and several others.

“When I wanted to know his opinion of the overture, he claimed that it was not yours — (I laughed) — that is, he continued, it was not your style, but another, a foreign, an old one — stop, I’m old enough, in the end you say an outdated one. — ‘Well, yes, that (Gustav had the audacity to add) is an outdated one! But why does the great genius borrow a style, why does he use those chain movements of the Ionian scale that we have heard to the point of boredom in a fugue form that lulls the imagination and drowns out every sublime thought?'”

“I: But it cannot be denied, stern Gustav, that my uncle has done the great Handel a kind of honor with this work, by writing this work in his powerful fugue style, which was indispensable in his time, for an audience that always showed great pleasure and interest in Handel’s works, namely, if I am not mistaken, for the Berlin audience, and indeed for the inauguration of their new theater in Königstadt.”

“Gustav: I am well aware of that, and it is precisely about this audience, some of whom already know your uncle very well, he was mistaken regarding the success of this overture precisely because they knew him. One could already hear in one’s mind the magnificent work of Koriolanus, the burning, almost wild and painful fire of the mighty overture to Egmont, the sublime, older C overture to Leonore, the bold (Pizarro) overture to Fidelio.”

“I: I’ll tell you now, Beethoven did not want to give any of that, because he had already done it, and that is why he created Handel’s second occasional overture.”

“Gustav: Second occasional overture? So there was already one? What is the point of a second one? What does Beethoven want from Handel anyway? The latter is already there, and if he wants to turn the form back a hundred years, he will already be out of tune with the present tonal life that breathes within him and which he has promoted. He can and must never take a step back without running the risk of producing something outdated instead of old. Händel is old and by no means outdated, but a Beethoven Händel is a Gothic or old German arch plopped into the new theater in Berlin. Imagine this strange contrast and the Berlin audience watching in front of it, and you will have the same success that Beethoven’s overture had in Berlin.”

Pointing out the Presto theme of the Overture, Gustav adds (now comparing it to Mozart), “You will admit to me that this theme is neither new nor of our time, nor can anything new ever be created with it, just as you cannot make a headdress for Dem. [Henriette] Sonntag out of Händel’s venerable wig curls.”

The writer concludes, “I finally claimed that all the blame lay with my playing and with the piano score in general; the overture must be heard by the orchestra. He agreed with the latter, because, in confidence, if he can perform one of your compositions, he does not fail to do his utmost. In this piece he is like that thirsty shepherd boy who was asked by another in the fields what he wanted? The other answered: “a barrel of beer.” “And if you have it, what would you like then?” “Another barrel of beer.” “Well, and if you have two barrels of beer, what then?” “Another beer.” Don’t take it badly, dear uncle!”

Today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.3) at 14 includes an advertisement from Sauer & Leidesdorf for C.F. Müller’s two collections of dances, the first of which includes Beethoven’s Waltz WoO 85 and the second contains Beethoven’s Ecossaise WoO 86.