BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, June 14, 1826
Beethoven makes a note that he needs new wicker chairs. Nephew Karl comes to visit. Uncle Ludwig asks whether the overcoats being repaired are ready from the tailor. Karl tells him that it has only been a couple of days. He had the tailor extend the old ones that were too short.
Uncle Ludwig continues his list:
- for the eggs, big bowls—
- coffee machine
- money for coffee sugar
Karl sees the last note, and suggests that the new housekeeper, Elisabeth Passy, would prefer money to actual coffee, because even if she drinks coffee, she would surely buy a lower quality sort, and thus save something.
Karl asks whether Frau Breuning [Karl spells it Bräuning] has gone to the country. Uncle Ludwig says she has.
Passy will start as the new housekeeper tomorrow. Karl says he will come the day after tomorrow to review how she is doing.
The tailor will also make vests from a pattern, for 4 florins each. Karl thinks they are durable.
Uncle Ludwig makes more notes in the conversation book:
“All clothes into the chest, which is finished
Also nails into it and a new one for black laundry
Chest”
Karl suggests that the maid, Marie Stiegel, should pay close attention to Elisabeth Passy; in case Passy doesn’t last, Stiegel may have learned how to cook by then.
Karl mentions that he ran into Schindler yesterday.
Conversation Book 112, 33r-34v, 31r.
Despite the assurances of former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler that he would bring opera singer Nanette Schechner to visit Beethoven around 5:30 p.m. today, he apparently was not able to accomplish that.
Today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.24) at 395-397 gives an account of the winter concerts held in Zurich. Among the pieces heard were symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Romberg, Weber and Ferdinand Ries. “When it comes to the selection of larger orchestral works, there seems to be a great preference for Beethoven’s compositions; this may well be the reason why we were treated to his Battle of Vittoria at the end of the first concert, whereby the instructions regarding the trumpets, drums, etc. were perhaps followed too conscientiously.”
In the account of vocal music in Zurich, the reviewer comments, “Herr Arter also sang several tenor arias…We would ask him not to sing scenes that are too long, such as Beethoven’s Ah, Perfido!” Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy op.80 was also performed by musical director Hildebrand von Winterthur.
The Choral Fantasy, op.80, is here performed by Martha Argerich and Seiji Ozawa: