BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, October 12, 1825

Beethoven writes from Baden to Nephew Karl in Vienna again today, regarding his plans for returning to Vienna in the upcoming days and moving into his new apartment in the Schwarzspanierhaus. “Dear son! I received your letter yesterday without a date or day—the main thing is the piano, since the weather is so nice and dry—and that Stein’s son [Karl Andreas Stein] will be able to fix it as soon as I arrive, since I am happy to pay him for it. Otherwise it will be completely ruined.”

“The carpenter will probably have found you today to bring the trunk here, since he wants to make the shutters. It will probably not be possible to come in before Saturday [October 15] and have everything brought to the new apartment from my brother’s.” [Ludwig had stored many of his possessions and pieces of furniture in a storage room at Brother Johann’s apartment building, owned by brother-in-law Leopold Obermayer.]

“Letting the old woman [housekeeper Barbara Holzmann] do this all alone won’t work. But if I don’t come, then you should come on Sunday with the wagon you took when Holz came here.”

“I wish that your selfishness towards me would subside at last; it does me just as little good as it puts you on the right and best path. Just go on as you are, and you’ll regret it. Not that I might die sooner, as that seems to be your wish, but I will separate myself from you completely while I’m alive, without abandoning you or failing to support you on that account. Seek out the fool who has sacrificed himself so much and has been rewarded so much and is thus rewarded by you daily. The worst thing is the consequences that will arise for you as a result of your behavior. Who will trust you when they hear what has happened and how you have wounded me and continue to wound me on a daily basis.”

“Make sure that I know how to find you. I’ll come whenever.”

“If I come on Saturday, you can come with me out here in the evening. It’s still particularly beautiful outside of Baden. I go for long walks, but yesterday I was in danger—alone—while my nephew could be here, had he not been wasting his time playing billiards.—Don’t become Rameau’s nephew.” [Beethoven is referring to Le Neveu de Rameau by Denis Diderot, in which the composer Rameau’s nephew is depicted as a parasite and spendthrift. Goethe made a German translation of the philosophical dialogue in 1805.]

“Your faithful father.”

“I spend every morning with the Muses—and they also delight me as I walk. Both the old and young women continue to behave wickedly. For now, but I will get rid of them both once I am back in Vienna.”

Brandenburg Letter 2069; Anderson Letter 1440. The original is held by the Vienna City and National Library (I.N. 150000).

Today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.233) at 983 includes a repeat of Simrock’s advertisement for Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s arrangement of Beethoven’s First Symphony, op.21, for flute quartet. That and a piano solo version are available at S.A. Steiner’s music shop in Vienna.

On the next page of the newspaper, 984, S.A. Steiner & Co. advertises that it has in stock Beethoven’s Opferlied, op.121 [now known as op.121b], “Die Flamme lodert! milder Schein durchglänzt,” for one solo voice with chorus and orchestra, newly published by B. Schott’s Sons in Mainz. The full score is 1 florin 30 kreutzers; the vocal and instrumental parts are available for 4 florins 10 kr., and the piano arrangement [by Beethoven himself, catalogued today as Hess 91] for 1 florin 15 kr., all in Vienna paper money, W.W.

Other works listed in this same advertisement are the Ariette “Ich war bey Chloen ganz allein,” for solo voice with piano accompaniment 50 kreutzers, or with guitar accompaniment for 36 kr. [This is Der Kuss, op.128, but the guitar version is not by Beethoven]; Bundeslied, “In allen guten Stünden erhöht,” for two solo and 3 choral voices, op.122. Score 1 florin 30 kr., parts 5 florins, and piano arrangement [again by Beethoven, Hess 92] for 1 florin 40 kr.; Overture in C major, op.124 [The Consecration of the House], arranged for pianoforte four hands by C. Czerny for 3 florins 20 kr., and the same for pianoforte solo for 2 florins 30 kr.; and the Bagatelles for the Pianoforte, op.126, for 3 florins. This appears to be the first Vienna advertisement of all these new Beethoven works from Schott’s.