BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, May 10, 1826
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz visits Beethoven today. Beethoven is concerned about a comment from the housekeeper that the firewood in the basement is getting wet. Holz is skeptical, because they are not near the river. The wood is very dry, he reports, from an ironwood tree. He could have had the best young, fresh wood for 31 florins, if he had wanted to buy that. But Holz goes down to see if the basement is wet, since if it is, they should be bringing the wood up sooner so it can dry out.
Beethoven makes a note, possibly about what he had for breakfast: “Brown sauce. Toast.”
Holz returns (the basement apparently being dry, because he makes no comment about it). He says he will get a small book where Beethoven can write down what fish he wants to buy from fishmonger Therese Jonas, and what the cost is, and the bill can be paid monthly or quarterly. Beethoven can have fish from her daily, if he wants.
Holz asks whether Beethoven has read the May Night libretto by Friedrich August Kanne that Anton Schindler dropped off a few days ago. Holz remarks about Kanne, “The poor devil needs money and probably won’t get any from [Kärntnertor Theater manager Louis Antoine] Duport until the book has passed your censorship; do the right thing and finish [reading] it soon.”
Beethoven asks again about the elusive copyright decree that supposedly prevents publishers from printing his works without his permission. Holz went to the Imperial and Royal Supreme Police and Censorship office and spoke to Court Secretary Alois Zettler (1778-1828) there. Holz got the runaround, because Zettler directed him to the Head Censor, Franz Sartori. But Sartori was the one who had sent him to Zettler. So, Zettler said Holz should come back the day after tomorrow [Friday, May 12] since Zettler wants to talk to Sartori in the meantime. Beethoven asks if Zettler knew when the decree was issued. No, Holz says, “He does not know which year.”
Publisher Mathias Artaria also plans to come see Beethoven soon. He wants to talk to Beethoven about the new quartet, op.131 in C-sharp minor [which is well under way, but not yet completed] and request that he be allowed to publish it. He will also bring a copy of the General History of Music by Charles Burney, which was sent as a gift for Beethoven by Burney’s granddaughter. Perhaps the box with it will have an answer to Artaria’s inquiry as to whether there is a large scale engraving of the Handel monument in Westminster Abbey, such as Beethoven had desired.
The old Tobias [Sigmund Anton Steiner] will be back from the Leipzig Trade Fair in a few days. “Also, as a merchant, Tobias is a genuine ass. Recently—so I was told—someone came to buy the recently released Quartet in E-flat major [op.127]. My god, said Tobias, no human being can play that! And the customer really did not buy it. The Schotts [Beethoven’s publisher of that quartet] can be grateful for such commissionaires. It is nothing but envy and petty revenge. I had to laugh when he said in anger that ‘Beethoven is only here to embitter my life!’ I said: ‘He is not there because of you at all, and never has been.'”
Beethoven dictates a letter to Holz, dated today and addressed to Baron Karl August von Klein in Mainz, who had forwarded a string quartet to Beethoven for his comment and to ask whether Beethoven would accept the dedication of the quartet. “Your excellency!”
“Through Court Councilor [Ignaz] v. Mosel, I just received a letter from you which I could not answer immediately due to being overburdened. You wish to dedicate a work to me; however few claims I may make to such things, I will nevertheless gladly accept the dedication of your fine work. You also want me to act as a critic, but do you not consider that I myself must be criticized! Yet I think, along with Voltaire, “that a few mosquito bites cannot halt a spirited horse in its course.” In this regard, I ask you to follow my lead. But so that I may approach you not in a veiled manner, but openly, as I always am, I will simply say to you that in similar future works you might pay more attention to the separation of the voices.”
“As it will always be an honor for me if I can be of service to you in any way, I commend myself to your kind regards and remain, with utmost respect,”
“Your most honorable Beethoven.”
Brandenburg Letter 2153; Anderson Letter 1484. The original is held in Eichenzell, in the Archive of the Hessian House Foundation. Klein’s letter to Beethoven is not known to survive. Klein later attempted to have C.F. Peters in Leipzig publish the quartet, not knowing that Peters wanted nothing to do with Beethoven. The quotation by Voltaire is from chapter 11 of L’ingenu, in the title character’s reaction to reading some scathing literary reviews.
The topic of Maurice Schlesinger’s desire to publish Beethoven’s complete works in Paris comes up. Beethoven has some qualms about circumventing the publishers to whom he has already sold the works. Holz disputes that idea. “Even if the author did not have the right to re-publish the works that have been sold, the law could easily be bypassed, if, for instance, a foreign publisher announces the publication of Beethoven’s complete works, as revised by him. There is no prohibition against revision, and it makes no difference whether you have received your fee for doing the revision, or for the publication, in which you took no direct part. And if you actually make only insignificant changes, yet still make changes in every work, who would not be happy to have these supposedly improved works in a completely identical edition?” Holz notes that Goethe did just that, shifting a few words around and publishing a new edition of his works.
Holz notes that baritone Franz Anton Forti (1790-1859), who had sung Pizarro in the 1814 and 1822 Vienna productions of Fidelio, is performing the opera “Der Schnee” (The Snow) by Daniel Auber. [This performance occurred on May 10, 1826, allowing these entries in the conversation book to be dated with precision.]
Holz offers to come and pick Beethoven up tomorrow [May 11], to attend Schuppanzigh’s concert in the Augarten if the weather is fine. Beethoven declines and tells Holz to attend without him. Beethoven asks whether the letter to Klein and other letters written today should be sealed. Holz says they can be sealed; he’ll take them to the post office tomorrow.
Conversation Book 110, 1ar-4v.
Today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.19 at 313-314 gives an account of the Musikverein in Vienna, which over the winter held 16 Thursday evening entertainments arranged by the so-called “Small Verein” featuring new artists. Among the works performed in this series of concerts was Beethoven’s piano Fantasia op.77, his string quintet in E-flat, op.4, as well as a selection of his lieder, including the performance of Lied aus der ferne, WoO 137, on March 2, 1826.
The Fantasia for Piano op.77 is here performed by Yeon-Min Park at the 2017 Seoul International Music Competition:
The Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung for today (Nr.19), in its lengthy continued account, concluding at 151, of a performance of Cherubini’s second solemn Mass in D minor in Vienna, also mentions that over the past year the Musikverein has performed other solemn masses, including one by Beethoven. This is presumably the performance of the Mass in C op.86 in December of 1825 that was referenced in the February 1, 1826 Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.5) at 80.