BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, November 2, 1825

An advertisement for a housekeeper for Beethoven appears in today’s Intelligenzblatt supplement to the Wiener Zeitung (Nr.250) at 1504. “Housekeeper wanted. A widow, of highest moral character, who can sufficiently demonstrate her knowledge of cooking and the other qualities necessary for running a household will be employed as a housekeeper under advantageous conditions. Further details will be provided at Alleegasse Nr.72 on the first floor, door on the left.” This advertisement was apparently placed by Frau Rosalia Schlemmer, wife of Karl’s landlord, to help Beethoven find a suitable housekeeper. Karl’s time over the following days will be occupied with interviewing possible candidates.

Today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.44) at 740 includes a short review of the publication of Beethoven’s Opferlied for solo voice, choir and orchestra, op.121, and Bundeslied, for two solo and three choral voices, op.122, both published by Schott in Mainz.

“Both pieces are actually treated as songs with a choral refrain, although the verses are separately set and the second has a separate, but short, ending. Each of the two poems, which are very different from one another, is taken up in the core of what it offers to the feelings, and expresses it in the most definite way. So the music for the first is gentle and solemn, the music for the second is strong, coarse, and (as a happy fellow put it) cheerful. In addition, one should not be too precise with small details in the treatment of the text (e.g., with the elongation, in the slow tempo, on ‘mir,’ in the first verse of the first song.)”

“The orchestral accompaniment is, as one hardly needs to mention with this master, completely appropriately chosen, developed in an original way, and very effective. The instrumentation for this part in the first song consists of the quartet, two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns; that in the second only of two clarinets, two bassoons, and two deep B-flat horns. This, as well as everything else, makes the first particularly suitable for performance at concerts and similar gatherings; the second is especially appropriate as a cheerful table song.”

“The publisher has had both engraved for every type of use, and they can be obtained individually in any form: Score (price each song 42 kreutzers), vocal and instrumental parts (the first 2 florins, the second 2 florins 24 kreutzers), and piano reduction (the first 56 and the second 48 kreutzers). [The piano reductions were by Beethoven himself, Hess 91 and 92, respectively.]

The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung for December 14, 1825 (Nr.50) at 825 contains a report of concerts in the city of Berlin during the month of November. Of particular interest is one held today by Hanover violinist Louis Maurer. Also on the lengthy program is a major work by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn: “The symphony [Nr.1, composed in 1824] was by the young Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who performed the Fantasy for the pianoforte with orchestral accompaniment and chorus by Beethoven [op.80] excellently.” Mendelssohn also conducted his own symphony, which had been premiered in an earlier version the year before at his sister Fanny’s 19th birthday celebrations.

Adolph Bernhard Marx reviewed this same performance in the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.45) of November 9, 1825 at 364-366. With regard to Mendelssohn’s first symphony, he wrote, “We have already reported on the symphony at its performance last year. It was written in a truly tragic excitement and exudes, especially in the first, third and last movements, a passion that is certainly not the fruit of instruction, but rather unequivocally attests to the true artist. Throughout, there is the kind of clear, confident attitude that one rarely finds in a seventeen-year-old composer. An unequivocal proof of this attitude and comprehensibility was that last year, after hearing it once, from memory, this critic was able to convey most of the main themes in this newspaper, and now, upon further examination, he could point out at most only minor errors. Even if some who have not been trained to understand great compositions have not been able to penetrate the rich and substantial work in its entirety and context, there will still have been no movement that has not offered beautiful, captivating passages to every class of listener, just as every part of the symphony has been met with loud applause. But whoever has been compelled by inner urge and circumstances to engage more deeply with music and to prepare himself for it with mind and heart will have absorbed the beautiful whole after the first perception and will not be prevented by the author’s youth from granting him the artistic rank he deserves. If, of course, seniority in the field of art were a matter of importance – how many a bandsman and cymbalist would be placed above Mozart and Spontini! The young composer conducted his work with the fire that is usually only characteristic of the creative artist. Who deserves the honor of directing more than the creator of the work?”

But Marx reserved his highest praise for the Choral Fantasy. “Even Beethoven’s magnificent imagination will certainly not have revealed the great spirit that dwells within it to some of his listeners. How is it possible that a work that took weeks, perhaps months, to mature in a great artist, which arose from a new idea, seeks out new sides of our inner being, to touch us with new echoes, new intuitions and views, may be caught by a mixed gathering as if in passing? One must be accustomed and trained to follow the artist’s flight of spirit in every form, or one must have enough reverence for artistic creations and enough self-knowledge to return several times to a work in which something new and good can only be sensed, and be prepared to give up all preconceived opinions and principles for the time being, in order to allow the new composition to work on one’s mind without disturbing it and to give it time to fully unfold. Anyone who disdains this is an ill-informed judge of all progressive works and robs himself of the enjoyment of them and the development of art in them. The works that are immediately generally accepted and popular are precisely the most worthless, for their success proves that they contain only traditional, long-standing and generally known material.”

“If those who have become so saturated with the spirit of earlier works and have become unresponsive to new ideas do not seem to have a satisfactory opinion, what should we think of those who have only understood the form of earlier works as something dead and compelling in itself and see it as the standard for new works? A work is considered overloaded if it is richer in ideas – chaotic and incomprehensible, indeed, even arduous if it is more bold in the development of its concept — wild if it does not share the weariness – hasty, hasty, unstable if it does not share the laziness of the judging old men (young or old), as they may. But for the sake of better and more willing music lovers, we very much hope that such works will be performed more often and that Beethoven’s Fantasy in particular will be performed again very soon. Who among the true musicians and art lovers cannot thank him for wonderful pleasures? Well, this symphony is, as it were, his musical characteristic. It is he who fantasizes on the piano, weaving his ideas from night and light, until the sounds of the instruments are animated by his spirit, one after the other joins in the dance, and finally the whole orchestra and the chorus of human voices woven into it roar with his fire. We should be very honored to the concert organizer who brings this work back as soon as possible; many who have now passed it by will then be enraptured by it. The performance by Mr. Mendelssohn was very praiseworthy in more than one respect, indeed distinguished by its fire and skill, but not imaginative enough, especially at the beginning. The orchestra and choir will enter even more into the spirit of the work in a second performance soon and will then fully prove their well-known excellence.”