BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, May 18, 1825
Beethoven writes two letters to Nephew Karl in Vienna today. The first is written at 1 p.m. “Dear Son! I’m just telling you that the old woman [housekeeper Barbara Holzmann] isn’t here yet. I don’t know why. Ask the mob in Kothgasse that belongs here [i.e., Holzmann] whether the mob has left for Baden. It’s really so difficult for me to depend on such people, that life, if it didn’t have an even greater appeal, would seem to be completely unbearable.”
“You will have received by now yesterday’s letter with the 2 florins for chocolate. Tomorrow I’ll probably have to drink coffee; who knows if that’s not better than chocolate, because this B. [Braunhofer’s] prescriptions have been wrong several times, and in general, he seems very limited to me and therefore a fool. He certainly knew about the asparagus.”
“After dining at the inn, I have quite a bit of diarrhea today. There’s no white wine left, so it had to be gotten from the inn, and what kind of wine, was one to get for 3 florins?”
“The old woman wrote to me the day before yesterday that she wished to die in the Spital after all. Perhaps she doesn’t want to come back. For God’s sake she’ll always be a wicked old woman. In that case, she should make arrangements with the person that she knows? She wrote me something completely different: ‘That the people didn’t want to give up the bell pull, as she told you on Sunday, and one can’t know whether she didn’t have some interest in it? Yesterday at 6 o’clock she went into town, and I begged her very much to make sure that she would arrive again this morning. If she comes, I’ll probably have to come into town the day after tomorrow. Leave me a written message where I can meet you.”
“Write me a few lines right away. How sorry I am to have to disturb you, but you see, I can’t help it. Your faithful father.”
As a postscript: “What an embarrassing situation to have to be in here like this.”
Brandenburg Letter 1973; Anderson Letter 1373. The original is held at the Biblioteka Jagiellonska (Mus. ep. autogr. Beethoven 16.)
Uncle Ludwig follows this up with a letter sent to Karl later this afternoon: “Dear son! The old woman has already arrived, so don’t worry. Study hard and get up early in the morning, where you yourself could combine many of the things that need to be done for me. For a young man who is now almost 19 years old, it can only be right to combine his duties for his education and advancement, with those towards his benefactor and provider. I have indeed done this with my own parents.”
“Yours sincerely, your faithful father.”
As a postscript, the bell has been retrieved from Johannesgasse apartment. “The old bell train has arrived here. The letter dated May 17th is signed today. It is dated May 18th.” Brandenburg Letter 1974, Anderson Letter 1374. This letter is also at the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krakow (Mus. ep. autogr. Beethoven 21.) This letter is, as frequent contributor Birthe Kibsgaard points out, one of Beethoven’s very few written references to his youth, when he had to support the family, his father being an alcoholic and his mother being ill.