BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, June 28, 1826 (approximately)

Nephew Karl visits his uncle at the Schwarzspanierhaus, and his tone is rather cold and businesslike. “I have picked up my watch; it seems to be running very well.” Uncle Ludwig asks Karl to give him the bill; Karl says that it has been paid already.

Uncle Ludwig is getting anxious about the bill of exchange from Schott’s for the quartet op.127, which was supposed to be at Franck & Co. Karl asks for their address. “You only have to inquire at Frank’s [sic] whether the bill of exchange has arrived Schott.” Uncle Ludwig asks Karl to do it, and Karl resignedly agrees.

Apparently Frau Passy has been dismissed as housekeeper. The maid, Marie Stiegel, has taken over as housekeeper. She asks where she should sleep [probably so she will be available if Ludwig requires her]. “Recently Frau Passy was about to visit Frau von Schlemmer [Karl’s landlady]; however, I happened to be in the room looking out of the window; when she caught sight of me, she quickly turned around and went sidewards into the alley.—She thinks she can complain about her sorrows to Frau v. Schlemmer; however, she tells me every word.”

Uncle Ludwig mentions that Dorothea Ertmann and her husband came to visit him. Karl asks what else she had to say. “She is said to play your works better than men.” He asks if they have been living in Milan up until now. Uncle Ludwig tells him that they have.

Karl lets his uncle know that Frau Schlemmer advised him to have Uncle Ludwig’s flour turned in the sack so it stays fine and does not become lumpy.

Ludwig is concerned that he has heard nothing from unpaid assistant Karl Holz, who left on Sunday complaining of chest pains. He did not stay long and did not eat dinner. Karl tells him, “About his appearance last Sunday, he seems to deserve to be excused, as he only came to fulfill his promises, and did not know that he still could not eat anything.”

Talk turns to the financial situation of Karl’s mother Johanna. Uncle Ludwig solicitously suggests they might have an Akademie benefit concert for her. Karl discourages that as pointless: “I do not think that an Akademie concert announced as for the benefit of an impoverished widow would find more approval than if it were announced to be for your own benefit.”

Uncle Ludwig wants to publish an announcement that the Steiner publishing house, now Tobias Haslinger’s, is no longer the agent for him, and correspondence should be sent directly to him. Ludwig is still angry about the dispute over title pages to the March and Chorus op.114 and Tremate, empi tremate op.116 that Haslinger intended to publish. Karl thinks it unnecessary to name Steiner and Haslinger; rather it could just say, “Everything that is to be delivered to me should only be delivered at my place.” Including the names would just lead to more nonsense on Steiner’s part, but Karl does think they will deliver anything incoming properly. “It seems that more was said to them than you wanted to say, and that is why they are so indignant.”

Karl says that the maid is open to the return of an elderly woman who previously applied to work there. But Karl does not think she would be able to do anything extraordinary, and it would be better to just take on Barbara Holzmann. “I told her that if you had any faith in her cooking skills, you would have taken her on yourself as housekeeper.” The maid, Stiegel, says that when she started, Passy told her that from now on she only had to pay attention to her and to serve her as if she were the mistress of the house. In the afternoons, Passy sat down and ordered the maid to make her coffee, although she was busy doing the washing.”

Uncle Ludwig is considering a bath. Karl tells him about a very good bath on the Wieden, close to his apartment, called Zur Flora. He bathed there last summer.

Karl tells his uncle that he will take care of the matters with Frank [sic] the day after tomorrow [approximately Friday, June 30.] He’ll also go to see the old woman about returning once more.

Conversation Book 113, 5v-9r.

Today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.26) at 427-431 gives an account of concerts in Bremen over the year prior. There are new private concerts given in the Krameramthaus every 14 days, which include the symphonies of Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and Ebert, as well as various vocal works and concerti. [The Krameramthaus is today reconstructed as the Gewerbehaus, the original building having been largely destroyed in World War II.] “Beethoven’s Overture to The Ruins of Athens was listened to with interest.”

The Intelligenz-Blatt supplement for June, 1826 (Nr.X) includes at 44-46 an advertisement from B. Schott’s Sons in Mainz of Beethoven works published by them between September 1825 and March 1826:
Consecration of the House Overture op.124, arranged for piano 4 hands by Czerny.
Consecration of the House Overture op.124, arranged for piano solo by Czerny.
6 Bagatelles for Pianoforte, op.126.
Ariette for Pianoforte: Ich war bey Chloen [Der Kuss], op.122 [sic].
Ariette for Guitar.
Opferlied, full score. op.121 [now op.121b].
id. in parts, op.121.
id. piano arrangement, op.121 [by Beethoven, now catalogued as Hess 91].
Bundleslied, full score, op.122.
id. in parts, op.122.
id. piano arrangement, op.122 [by Beethoven, now catalogued as Hess 92].
Quartet for 2 violins, viola and violoncello, op.127.
The same Quartet in full score.
Grand Overture for orchestra, op.124 [Consecration of the House].
The same Overture in parts.

A number of arrangements of Beethoven works were also advertised in this issue of the Intelligenzblatt by Schott:

L. v. Beethoven, 3 string quartets, arranged from pianoforte works by A. Brand.
L. v. Beethoven, Symphony [Nr.2] op.36 in D, arranged for pianoforte, flute, violin and violoncello by J.N. Hummel.
The same symphony for pianoforte solo.

The July 5, 1825 Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.26) at 212-213 gives an account of the seventh subscription concert held by the Bliesener Brothers today in Berlin. The correspondent, who is attending his first one of these concerts, is unimpressed. “The previous reports always highlight the merits of the entrepreneurs, who are almost the only ones to attract the public with large symphonies, without however, giving the performer unconditional praise; and the undersigned found this very understandable after hearing the D major symphony by Beethoven [Nr.2, op.36] performed in the Jagorscher Hall. In magnis voluisse sat est [In great things, it suffices to try – Sextus Propertius] – should not be extended too far.”