BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, June 9, 1824

Beethoven is making the final preparations for moving to his country place in Penzing tomorrow morning.

Nephew Karl is going to his study group today. After that, he will go visit his school friend Carl Enk, and Enk can move in with Karl in the apartment yet today, since Uncle Ludwig will be leaving for the country tomorrow. Ludwig is not keen on that idea, so Karl says he can move in early tomorrow instead. But the maid should be sent in to put the place in order. Karl says he will buy the necessary things. Uncle Ludwig asks when he will see Karl next, then. He expects they will get together before Sunday, June 13.

After Karl leaves for his discussion group, Uncle Ludwig makes a last minute list of supplies and errands to be taken care of:

+No. in Penzing. [Beethoven had been unable to remember the house number of the house he was renting, since unpaid assistant Anton Schindler had made the rental payment over a month ago and was the one dealing with the landlord.]
+Locksmith, to make the outer doors close properly. [Presumably this is for the Vienna apartment where Karl and his friend will be staying, since Ludwig has not been out to Penzing since April.]
+Clock key.
+Straw mattress.
Where papers have come in.
+Night toilet.
+Mustard.
+Flour. +5 large packs.
+Key.
Kitchen. And a baked chicken.
+Blotting paper.
+Shoe buckles.
No.43 [Beethoven has either finally remembered the house number, or found the rental receipt for the apartment in Penzing.]
Fresh sheet and pillow case in Vienna. [This would not be for Karl, but rather when Ludwig would be spending the night in Vienna due to business there.]
+Candles for Karl – how many?

Beethoven presumably runs many of these errands this afternoon and makes these purchases with the maid along to do the heavy lifting.

Conversation Book 71, 28r-29r.

Beethoven owned several key-operated clocks. Here is a rather ornate desk clock that is held by the Beethovenhaus:

The Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.40) for today continues its lengthy review by editor Friedrich August Kanne of Beethoven’s two Akademie concerts at 157-160. Continuing the discussion of the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony, the reviewer was particularly struck by the grotesque leaps, executed with such rapid force, and easily falling into the allabreve. “In the staccato route of the oboe, flute, bassoon &c. you can see little Columbine tripping with her Pierrot, who is jumping with daring leaps from one land of modulation to another, transforming at every moment.” The humorous strokes of the timpani were used to jump from high to low, and the basses represent Pierrot with their long steps and shifting directions.

“The inexhaustible composer gives free leeway to all his whims and comic ideas in this piece.” The instruments imitate teasingly, then run away from each other, rushing in completely opposite directions, then suddenly turning back and tripping toward one another again. “Anyone who wants to do such daring masterpieces, or wants to study and imitate such masterful daring, must be reminded in passing that you need to bring as much genius to it as possible.”

The performance of this work was much more favorable in the Theater next to the Kärntnertor (of course because the orchestra was placed on the podium), which completely reacts against the resonance of the sounds, than in the large Redoutensaal. In the former, the staccato as individual sounds seemed to be better rounded and did not create an echoing effect, which would darken the structure. There, the orchestra, reinforced by many dilettantes, was much more favorable to the large audience.

“The Adagio in B-flat is a most heartfelt, soulful one, singing and flowing in blissful melancholy, in which Beethoven’s glory appears in great clarity….He breathes his longing into the most flowing melodies, which are very interesting and not interrupted by too many changes. Harmony shifts gently, and especially before the final cadence wants to calm down. Still hesitantly, they move back up to a higher level of sound until they calm the mind again through the long-withheld reassurance.” The reviewer likes how Beethoven gave the light upper voices a semi-dark contour, and a singing one to the cellos and bassoons.

“The sudden transition to the related key of D major is not one of those with which some magicians today almost burst through the door. But rather it was silently sensed, yet made striking through foreign means.” The violins lead a melody used several times in the piece, which cannot be exceeded for sweet euphony and intimacy. The cellos also sing along with the beautiful course of the Adagio, and increase the melting expression of the composition.

“We sincerely confess that Hr. Schuppanzigh has claimed his place as first violinist in this execution, completely in the spirit of the enthusiastic performance of some many previous works by Beethoven, but the unsurpassable Kapellmeister Umlauf, who conducted the entire symphony, documented clearly his really excellent skill. His lightning-fast eyes met every solo at its beginning, and increased the powerfully energetic effect.”

Both of them performed particularly well in the Finale. Beethoven recapitulates his earlier themes in different time signatures one after another, interrupted by a recurring recitative from the basses, which the other instruments listen to in silence. At the end, Schiller’s famous Ode an die Freude weaves into all these different, almost contradictory, themes. If you have tried to bring various substances into unity, you will understand the gigantic design that Beethoven’s imagination has created.

The serious calm and power with which the bass sings the words, “Freude, schöner Götterfunken” also describes the spirit in which Beethoven responded to the genius of Schiller. The composer tried to imprint the stamp of classicity upon it through organic interweaving. Through the chain of imitation, with a high level of prudence, he is allowed to take freedoms in this creation “wrapped in a nimbus, which gives the whole work its due dignity.”

“Of course, some people will be shocked when they look at the figures that Beethoven sometimes gave the choir to perform, and the maximum heights and depths may be beyond their scope. All such singers are not likely to be very practiced in this style, making these vocal parts a dangerous touchstone, for Beethoven’s genius has now revealed that there are no barriers at all here. But rather, he has created his own world, and it moves with such tremendous power and freedom that you can see the previous world seems too small for him, so he must build a new one, with completely new shapes.”

Although economical in its construction, the piece is a gigantic monster, for its violent tempos tear at the listener as if in a storm, from one sensation to another, and hardly let him come to his senses. “This is why the the attentive listener feels a sense of complete exhaustion by this symphony, longing for rest, because he is too excited internally.”

Beethoven felt that with an expenditure of such diverse forces, an accumulation of apparently heterogeneous masses, he would allow Turkish music to enter in the middle of his chorus. No one would be so silly as to claim that the composition is in the so-called Turkish style. The shrill and thundering brass instruments reinforce the effect of such works, which are derived from German origin. Such Islamism is often found in arias, duets, etc., “but even more often in compositions dedicated to church services, but unfortunately all too often written by atheists.” Beethoven’s oriental brass orchestra stands with good taste and agrees quite well with the nobler style. His imagination is always creating, and his spirit always finds its way back to new material, diversely changing with rich inventiveness. “In short, the master wanted it. No matter what, some people who blame everything would not have liked it, because they haven’t yet tried it.”

The passionate nature of the Finale, fighting and wrestling with all the elements and forces of the music, cannot in fact be grasped at the first listen. That may be why some enthusiastic listeners do not entirely agree with the judgment of the enthusiastic applause from Beethoven’s admirers. The more such a work exceeds the norms, the more freedom it develops, and the less there is of what is familiar to us, then the easier it is for people to form various opinions about it. “Expectation stretches through expansion.” All those in harmony with Beethoven’s highly educated musical world declared themselves all the more resolved that originality and free individuality should be looked upon as the great phenomenon of the century.

We come now to the three pieces from the new and excellent Mass. One must first allow that these works by such a great composer may go beyond the usual norms. The limits must be sacrificed to his reigning desire for creation. “We admit that such a high Mass is not suitable for the measured time of one hour, but Art may also assert its rights if she presents her work as a new product, without any further reason, and all other laws must be renounced due to necessary or conditional expediency.”

For thirty years, Beethoven has had such great advantages that the public will forgive much through poetic license. His works published over that time period have given him such an awe-commanding position that no one would willingly succumb to the impulses of reprimanding pedantry. Over time, these works may be judged with far more justification. Beethoven’s genius here gives both the solo voices and the quartet a very high level of religiosity, and clearly worked these pieces with great diligence.

The Kyrie, written in a brilliant but wonderfully free style, shows several beautiful canti firmi, which in a very inventive manner liven up and make interesting the counterpoint. The often soulful progression of the melodies penetrates the heart of the listener. The strictest attention to intonation is required here. Despite the participation of many experienced chorus members, as well as several dilettantes, the choirmaster will have to use all his skill and give all entrances the appropriate fire. It was not clear how these professional singers [at the second concert], who are in constant practice, did not manage to assert themselves firmly and sometimes were thrown out of the saddle. Probably such music can only be properly understood through many rehearsals; then it can be executed well. The singing choir of the Kärntnertor theater deserve commendation in every respect, because their performance clearly demonstrated their members’ ability.

Hr. Seipelt did best of all. In some places, the other three voices momentarily emerged with beauty. This applies to all three pieces from the Mass.

The Credo in B-flat major is characterized in the same way in its dignified treatment of the singing voices, with the very graceful leadership of the violoncellos. They often used the high register to allow for singable melodies. Beethoven put special meaning on the word “descendit,” in that he used “de-,” long characterized as a prepositional syllable, for a long time, reducing the relative gravity of the following “-scendit.” In “Incarnatus est” there is an especially beautiful change of singing and instrumentation. The “Crucifixus” penetrates deeply into the soul, and fills it with all the horrors of foreboding of that great catastrophe. The Master appears in “Et vitam venturi,” etc., with a fuga a due soggetti, in which he marries all of his art with all the boldness of his inventiveness.

The reviewer, Kanne, isn’t done yet, but this review will continue in another issue of the Vienna AMZ.

In today’s Wiener Zeitung, Nr.131 at 551, Anton Diabelli & Co. (formerly Cappi & Diabelli) announces the new publication of “Vaterländischer Künstlerverein [Fatherland Artist’s Association,] Contemplations for the piano, on a Misplaced Theme, composed by the most excellent composers and virtuosos of Vienna and the Imperial Austrian states. The first of the two volumes is comprised of Beethoven’s 33 variations on Diabelli’s waltz theme, op.120. The second volume includes variations on the theme by 50 others, including the following who have appeared in these pages: Carl Czerny, Joseph Czerny, Count von Dietrichstein, Abbé Gelinek, Anton Halm, Johann Horzalka, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, M.J. Leidesdorf, Franz Liszt [his first published composition, catalogued as S.147], Josef Mayseder, Ignaz Moscheles, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jr., Hieronymus Payer, Johann Peter Pixis, Franz Schubert, Abbé Stadler, Michael Umlauf and many others, with a coda by Carl Czerny. The Beethoven volume costs 5 florins 30 kreutzers W.W.; the second volume is 10 florins W.W.

“The art dealer, under the new company name A. Diabelli & Comp., considers itself fortunate to be able to open its career with the edition of a musical work that is unique of its kind, and by its very nature will remain so. All of the Fatherland’s still-living, well-known composers and virtuosos on the fortepiano, fifty in number, have united to compose a variation on one and the same theme presented to them. Their spirit, taste, individuality, and artistic view explains each person’s unique way of handling the fortepiano in the most interesting and instructive ways. Our great Beethoven (the musical Jean Paul of our time) had already previously worked out 33 variations on the same theme (published by us), which make up the first part of this work, in a masterfully original arrangement, with all the touches of genius that exhaust our art. How interesting would it be if all the other musical artists currently flourishing on Austria’s Elysian soil were to develop their talents on the same motif. Thus this important work became not only a prize task, but also an alphabetical lexicon for all; some of them long-celebrated, some of them the promising heirs of our age, which has been so brilliant in the history of art, have made their contributions.”

“It would go too far to detail all the individual achievements here. We will content ourselves with pointing out that Em. Förster, who unfortunately has already been lost to us, laid down the last work of his fine spirit here; that several highly respected dilettantes were also kind enough to decorate this collection; that Herr Kalkbrenner also made a contribution to us during his stay in Vienna – just as the public will see, not without interest, the first attempt at composition by the talented eleven-year-old boy Liszt in this collection. Finally, at our suggestion Hr. Carl Czerny, along with his alphabetical contribution, added a finale at the end of the entire work. The external part corresponds to the content.”

A few of the more notable variations from Book II, including Liszt’s, plus Czerny’s coda, can be heard here:

Those diehards wanting to dive into all 33 variations of Book I by Beethoven, plus all 50 of the variations contained in Book II, can find them in the epic playlist here, played by Pier Paolo Vincenzi:

In the same issue of the Wiener Zeitung, at 552, publisher S.A. Steiner & Co. announces the publication of the latest issue of Odeon, the collection of new and excellent concert pieces, containing the newest work from Carl Czerny, the Introduction, Variations and Rondo on the Hunter’s Chorus from the opera Euryanthe, for piano with orchestra accompaniment, op.60. Other previously published works of Czerny are also offered by Steiner.

The Introduction, Variations and Rondo, op.60, can be heard here, performed by Rosemary Tuck on piano, accompanied by Richard Bonynge conducting the English Chamber Orchestra: