BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, October 4, 1826

Today’s Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.40) contains a front page (317) article on the relationship of form to content in modern music; Beethoven is used as an example: “The point in time from which later researchers will date the more recent transformation of musical art cannot be determined in advance. From the standpoint of where we are now, Beethoven presents himself without dispute as the one to whom the discovery of new realms, or at least the blossoming path that leads there, is to be attributed. If we understand this great composer correctly, we describe his artistic achievement as one through which he was the first to open up the Romantic world, in which Mozart’s dramatic music moves, to instrumental music as well. While in the former, human activity and drive, awakened by love and passion, form the richly moving foundation upon which Mozart’s poetic creations appear, in instrumental music, in accordance with its original meaning, the inexhaustible abundance of natural life is the no less richly formative foundation upon which Beethoven anchored his artistic views.”

This same issue of the Berliner AMZ at 323 gives a report on concerts at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna in August, 1826. At a concert given by mandolin virtuoso Herr [Pietro] Vimercati, the performances included the Overture to Fidelio by Beethoven.

In Berlin today, a performance of Haydn’s Creation is given, with the participation of Beethoven’s friend soprano Henriette Sontag, in a church overcrowded with more than 6,000 people. Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of October 11, 1826 (Nr.41) at 328. Of more interest to the correspondent is the comparison of the Berlin musical public with the Parisian: “The Berlin public has often been accused of coldness and immobility, and of being more willing to open up its ears to criticism than to open its heart to art. However much or however little of this accusation may be true, Miss Sontag transformed everything with regard to herself. From her first appearance, the public was so devoted to her that they no longer read reviews to agree with them, but to collect the praises in them. Later reporters and readers caught every shallow word from Paris and passed it on, not as if they had said something there that had not already been better expressed here.”

The editor then launches into a footnote diatribe that France owes everything great in music to Italy and Germany, which especially in the last quarter century have made such enormous progress. By comparison, France “has achieved nothing noteworthy in the theory and criticism of music, and is obviously incapable of understanding the greatest musical achievements of Sebastian Bach, Handel, Beethoven, and even Mozart.” Berliner AMZ Nr.41 at 329.

At Birmingham, England, today is the second day of the Grand Musical Festival for the benefit of the General Hospital, under the patronage of the King, George IV, and a long list of distinguished nobles and gentlemen. This morning’s performance is a selection of sacred music, commencing with the Overture to Esther, newly arranged for wind instruments, as well as portions of Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, and concerted pieces from Handel, Beethoven and others, interspersed with favorite airs by the principal singers. The Harmonicon for September, 1826 (Nr.XLV) at 186. The piece by Beethoven is “Glory to God,” the English language version of the Gloria from the Mass in C, op.86, in the second part of the program at St. Philip’s Church. This Gloria is incorporated into a musical drama, Joseph (1807), with music by Étienne Méhul (1763-1817). The Harmonicon for November, 1826 (Nr.XLVII) at 219.