BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, May 31, 1826
Nephew Karl comes to see Uncle Ludwig today to help sort out the transition between servants. Elise Seidl is being interviewed again for a position as housekeeper, possibly having her cooking trial.
Probably after she leaves, Beethoven wants unpaid assistant Karl Holz to deliver his answer to publisher Mathias Artaria (possibly about the piano duet version of the Grosse Fuge). Karl says that he will not do so; Uncle Ludwig will have to tell him himself.
Back to housekeepers: Seidl could start at once. “She would perhaps be good as a cook. She spent 1 year in Bohemia with her parents, returned a short while ago, and is looking for a position.” She said that the room for the housekeeper looked nice, but she was unimpressed by the dish situation in the kitchen. [A previous clumsy housekeeper broke a great many of Beethoven’s dishes.] Karl asks whether she should be told she should start at once? Uncle Ludwig is noncommittal. Karl responds, “In any case, it has to be a person who can start at once, otherwise you will be on your own [on Friday June 2]. The day after tomorrow is her last day. Karl thinks that if Uncle Ludwig likes Seidl, he should go to her tonight and tell her that he wants to take her on. “That would be the best thing to do.”
Uncle Ludwig would like the current housekeeper to be gone when Seidl starts. Karl says she will leave at 8 o’clock; he can arrange with Seidl to start at 9 or 10 on Friday, and she can start doing shopping tomorrow.
The current housekeeper complains that she cannot bake with lard, because she does not have any, and she cannot bake with butter. She bought a half quarter-pound of butter herself, because she had too little. Karl also asks what Uncle Ludwig wants to be done about the laundry. She [probably the washerwoman] won’t have time to iron it herself before she leaves.
Uncle Ludwig dictates to Nephew Karl a letter for Berlin publisher Adolph Martin Schlesinger. “Your Excellency!”
“In reply to your honor in the letter of April 15th [Brandenburg Letter 2147]. I inform you that Count Brühl, however favorably he has spoken of the poem Melusina by Herr Grillparzer, nevertheless desires from me a different choice, because the aforementioned opera bears some resemblance to Baron de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine. As soon as I have resolved both this matter and the composition, I will give you preference over all other publishers.”
“Best regards to Herr Marx [editor of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, published by Schlesinger]. I will send him something soon. I have long expected to receive news from your son regarding my latest quartet. His accident may be the cause of the delay. [Son Maurice Schlesinger’s warehouse in Paris had burned down.] However, I believe that father and son are one and the same. Since, trusting in him, I have already written off several other publishers, you could undertake to publish the quartet yourself. You are already aware of the fee of eighty ducats in gold. As for smaller pieces, I have prepared: serenade congratulatory minuet [WoO 3] and an entre-acte [probably WoO 2b, the beginning of the original second act of Leonore], both for full orchestra, which I could let you have together for twenty ducats in gold.”
“I must only ask that you reply as soon as possible. Regarding the works, please designate a place here where I can deliver them myself upon receipt of the sum in ducats.”
“It will be very pleasant for me, by the way, to make your personal acquaintance very soon.”
“Your most devoted, Beethoven.”
Brandenburg Letter 2157; Anderson Letter 1487. The original letter is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (W 6,5). Beethoven’s phrasing is confusing, and it seems as if he is offering three different works. However, as will be made clear in a letter to another publisher on June 3, the Serenade he references and the Congratulations Minuet are one and the same piece. On receipt, Schlesinger added a notation, “Accepted and requested the original or a good copy.” However, because of the confusion no agreement was reached and Schlesinger published neither of these works. Schlesinger had previously announced his intention to come to Vienna and visit Beethoven. He will do so in September.
The entr’acte WoO 2b is here performed by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner:
Karl says he’ll return tomorrow to discuss what needs to be done. He will also make an appointment about a kitchen maid.
Later today, Uncle Ludwig reads the newspapers in a coffee house. He copies down an advertisement from today’s Intelligenzblatt of 2 volumes of poems by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, for 48 kreutzers C.M. at Ludwig Mausberger’s bookshop.
Conversation Book 110, 47v-49r.
The Intelligenz-Blatt Supplement (No.IX) to today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.22) includes at 40 an advertisement by publisher C.F. Peters for Beethoven’s Septet op.20, arranged for wind band by Swedish clarinetist and composer Bernhard Crusell (1775-1838).
The Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung published today (Nr.22) at 174 gives a rundown of the compositions played over the season in the subscription concerts of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. Those by Beethoven include the Quartet in E minor (Rasoumouwsky) [op.59/2]; in A op.18 [op.18/5]; Trio in E-flat (Erdödy) op.70, No.2; Quintet in E-flat op.4; Grand Septet; Quartet in F, op.18, No.1.