BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, November 16, 1825

Violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh comes to visit Beethoven this morning. He tells Beethoven that he would like to have the parts for the Quartet in A minor, op.132 tomorrow. There is to be a rehearsal at 6 o’clock in the evening, in preparation for the concert on Sunday. This is the first Beethoven has heard about it. “Has Holz not been here?” Schuppanzigh queries. They are rehearsing in the Wildpretmarkt, at the Sign of the White Stag on the 4th floor [5th floor American]. Schuppanzigh is annoyed with Holz, who he says can’t keep his mouth shut.

Schuppanzigh offers Beethoven some unsolicited advice (as usual addressing Beethoven in the third person, which is disregarded here): “Dear Beethoven, you must use the time now and give your Mass [the Missa Solemnis] and [Ninth] Symphony on subscription concerts at the Landständischer Saal—before the engraved copies arrive here. You would certainly earn several thousand florins, without needing to have the least concern about it. Once your pieces arrive engraved, then everyone can give them.” Beethoven thinks that the Ninth and the full Mass would be too much for one concert. Schuppanzigh agrees, they should be split in two: “The Symphony and the Mass fill 2 evenings.” Beethoven asks when he should do this? “Three weeks from now. Leave it to me; I’ll take care of everything.” Beethoven does not have a copy of the score of the Missa Solemnis [at Karl’s urging he loaned it to Reisser, the vice-director of the Polytechnic Institute so he could make himself a copy], and Schuppanzigh is surprised that there isn’t any score of the work copied.

Beethoven should set firm prices for his works. “All the works in his [Steiner’s] shop have specific prices.” Schuppanzigh suggests Beethoven deal with Haslinger, rather than with Steiner himself.

After Schuppanzigh departs, Nephew Karl arrives a bit after noon for Theresia Adelmann’s cooking trial. “She has the best will; she says that she wishes nothing more ardently than to make you satisfied with everything. She is also very satisfied with her situation.”

Karl is in agreement with Schuppanzigh that Uncle Ludwig ought to do another Akademie benefit concert, and he should make those arrangements now.

Frau Adelman says her daughters can read and write quite well. If Beethoven would not mind, perhaps they could come to this apartment to sleep? They are in the Institute, but she would save a great deal if they were to sleep here, and then they would leave in the morning. They take all their meals there, so Beethoven wouldn’t be feeding them.

Adelmann says that they have 1 1/2 pounds of meat, which is enough. She took too much fish because she considered Beethoven to be a bigger eater than he is. She could have taken a whole small carp, but she believed it would not be good enough for him since the larger fish are always far tastier.

She is worried that she will do something that Beethoven does not like.

Uncle Ludwig mentions that they will need to retrieve the score of the Missa Solemnis if they are going to do the Akademie concert. Karl believes that Franz Michael Reisser of the Polytechnic Institute, who had wanted to make a copy of the Missa Solemnis, is still not finished with it. While he was gone on vacation the score was locked up. He thinks that if there were to be an Akademie soon, it might be performed on February 13, the Emperor’s birthday. If not, then the dedication to the Emperor could be omitted. He would like to possess the parts himself, and is not afraid of the expense. Mainly he wants the Mass to be performed.

Frau Adelmann continues her cooking trial; she has made so many dishes that they have run out of plates and she has to wash a few for the next rounds.

Conversation Book 98, 35v-38v. The trial is a success, and Frau Adelmann is hired as the new housekeeper, ending Barbara Holzmann’s long tenure in that position, at least for now.

Today’s Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (nr.46) contains a lengthy report of concerts held this year in Warsaw. At 763, there is a report that music director Jawurek held a concert for charitable purposes at the large hall of the Music Conservatory, which had to be repeated by popular demand. Both of these concerts included an unidentified chorus by Beethoven, which Jawurek accompanied on the Choraleon. This was an instrument that Conservator Brunner built on plans by Professor Hoffmann of the University, which is essentially an Aeolodikon or Aeolomelodikon (which Herr Brunner had invented and received a patent for the exclusive manufacture of it for 6 years). The instrument has “tin speaking tubes on metal pipes, which are bent towards the listeners. This gives the instrument a surprising variety of tone. Depending on how much air flows from the foot pedals, the instrument changes tonal color. With a steady or weak flow, only the actual tones of the instrument can be heard, while a somewhat stronger swell results in a tone that resembles a shrill clarinet, an even stronger one the sound of a French horn, and finally the sound of a choir of trombones and trumpets. With this fortissimo, it drowns out an orchestra of 60 bowed and wind instruments, as well as just as many singers and a small organ.”

These two Warsaw concerts are also notable today in that they included a performance by Warsaw Lyceum student Frederic Chopin of the first Allegro of the Piano Concerto in F minor by Ignaz Moscheles, with free fantasias played by Chopin on the Aeolopantalon, a combination piano and mechanical organ. “This instrument, made by the local master carpenter Dlugosc, combines the Aeolomelodikon with the pianoforte in a way that offers the player who has familiarized himself with the composition of the instrument a surprising variety, and in the hands of the talented young Chopin, who is distinguished by a wealth of musical ideas in his free fantasias and is a complete master of this instrument, it makes a great impression. Prince Anton Radziwill, Governor of the Duchy of Posen [a subscriber to the Missa Solemnis], who is universally respected as a connoisseur and artist, also expressed his satisfaction with the very successful musical performances mentioned above.” [This is the first review of Chopin’s playing that has appeared outside of Poland. However, Moscheles did not compose a concerto in F minor; possible candidates are Concerto Nr.1 in F major, op.45 (1818) or the Concerto Nr.3 in G minor op.60 (1820).]