BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, October 6, 1824
Johann Andreas Stumpff most likely goes back to Vienna today and bids farewell to Beethoven. His account of their parting: “Beethoven was the last to accompany me to the carriage that was now to separate me from him on this side of the grave! After a few silent minutes on the country road by the carriage that was getting ready to drive off, he pulled a small roll of paper from his bosom: ‘Take this picture of me, which is supposed to represent my face, as a souvenir; it is not good, and was drawn on stone by a friend who is not a professional artist.'” [It is unclear which portrait he means, since Stephan Decker, who did the most recent lithograph of Beethoven, was a professional artist. Given the later discussion, it may have been a lithograph of the famous Joseph Stieler portrait. Based on later comments, Stumpff may lose the portrait in the carriage ride back to Vienna and have to ask Beethoven for another.]
“Now he stared at me, taking my hand, which I pulled back and formed into a funnel, and pressed it to his left ear (which he had already allowed me to do outside) – I then shouted the following words sharply into his ear, ‘If I meet an artist in London to whom I can communicate what has made such a deep impression on my soul, I will bring to light what is still missing from the best painting of yours for the sake of your patrons.'”
“Now he embraced me in a kind of ecstasy while a funeral procession was coming towards us, which he stepped out of the way of and disappeared. What forebodings filled my soul as I sat in the carriage and bright tears trickled from my face into the carriage!”
TDR V 131.
Stumpff gave another account of his leavetaking in an August 7, 1838 letter (in English) to the editor of the London Musical World, the pre-eminent 19th century British music journal, August 23, 1838, Vol.2 New Series 34, pp.281-282: “It was on last parting from this extraordinary being, who seemed on that occasion very much agitated, venting his feelings in strong expressions of sorrow at my early departure (as he called it), that he put a lithographic print of himself on my hand, and seizing the other with a convulsive grasp, exclaimed, ‘Take this print, though a very bad one, as a token of esteem: receive it of a friend, who shall ever remember you, and alight at your house whenever I shall come to London.'”
“The beating of my poor heart became visible; I pointed to the vehicle that stood waiting, we walked towards it, B. earnestly talking, a pause ensued, and he inclined his ear towards my lips, when I said, ‘Sir, should ever I meet with an able artist, to whom I could communicate and convey that, which had made such a deep impression on my mind, I then would publish a better print.’ To which he replied in an Austria dialect, ‘Es thut einem ja wohl ‘mal wieder einen Menschen zu schauen.’ [It will be nice to see a fellow again.] To which I answered, ‘Fare thee well then, noble and highly gifted being, Gott erhalte und schütze Dich!'” [God bless and protect you!]
Stumpff’s letter was prompted by a notice in the July 5, 1838 issue of the Musical World at 169 about a lithograph of Beethoven, based on the Stieler portrait, which Stumpff had printed at the end of 1837. This earlier article states, “Beethoven’s Portrait. – We have received a lithograph portrait of this musician, engraved by [Nicholas] Hanhart, from a painting by Stieler, a print for which our countrymen are indebted to the enthusiasm of M. Stumpt. [sic] This engraving combines the softness of a lithograph, with the delicacy and finish of a copperplate. The portrait, we apprehend, from a comparison to others, to be a striking likeness of the composer, an opinion in which we are borne out by that expressed by J.N. Hummel, who has declared it to be the best and most faithful yet published. In the lofty and projecting forehead, the expansive brow and deep set eye, we trace a vivid susceptibility to the impressions of the beautiful, the ideal, and the sublime; whilst in the resolved and almost stern expression of the mouth, we see the impress of a mind which has more of contempt than love for humanity: – the expression of imagination and profound intellect, combined with a grandeur and passion; a settled mould of features indicative of an habitual and intense train of thought, far removed from the ordinary objects of human observation. No disciple of Beethoven should be without it.”
The lithograph in question (printed in London in 1837) is in the Beethovenhaus collection, B 349/b, and is seen here courtesy of the Beethovenhaus.
The composer’s name appears on the print as “Ludewig van Beethoven.” Stumpff has written the following verses below it:
He strikes like Him, who from Olympus hurl’d
His flaming shafts, th’advancing foes to chace,
On up-piled rocks, their banners stream’d unfurl’d
(To force access attempted Titan’s race):
When tempest blasts, the sea-foam’d mountain dash,
Rous’d by their ire, in gulfs from whence they sprung,
Wild angry Waves, the rock-based beacon lash,
To which the shipwreck oft exhausted clung:
When rage is quell’d, the sun sports on the sea,
And fields resound of many a rural strain,
The kindred soul is wing’d by Sympathy,
Trembling with bliss, to some enchanted plain:
Thus strikes with awe and bliss, when Symphonies proclaim,
Beethoven’s magic powers, that crown withal his fame.
Stumpff adds below that, “The above Print was published & the Verses written by the under signed in commemoration of him whose Genius had produced those Gigantic Symphonies as well as those depicting Pastoral-life, anxious of contributing a Mite of gratitude to the MANES, of that ever bright Star on the horizon where Handel & others are blazing, as well as for the friendship & confidence Beethoven had bestowed, while on a visit to Vienna & afterwards, on an individual unpretending, but on a warm admirer of the fine arts, when inspired by the Muse Polyhymnia & embodied by some of her favorites, to astonish, delight & enlighten the congenial mind. – J.A. Stumpff of 6 Portland Street, the Proprietor, Xmas Day 1837 London.”
Stumpff’s notes, as recorded by Thayer, indicate that he returned to London on December 6. However, it seems hardly credible that he would still have been in Vienna and not visited Beethoven again, so he likely departs the City before long. Karl will later note that Stumpff intends to bid farewell to Vienna by October 17. He may have returned to Munich along with Kuroffsky-Eichen, the cavalry captain, who leaves Vienna on October 19, according to the October 21 Wiener Zeitung Departures column, Nr.243 at 1019.
Beethoven returns to Schloss Gutenbrunn, where he is alone with the lazy maid for a couple days. Karl and the housekeeper were supposed to return today, but as the day wears on Beethoven starts to get more and more worried. Working himself into a near panic, in a repeat of the situation two weeks ago, Ludwig writes this evening to his friend Tobias Haslinger in Vienna: “Dear Tobias! I sincerely ask you to go straightaway to the house on Johannesgasse where we are moving to and see whether Karl slept there yesterday and today, and if he is at home, have this note handed to him straight away. If he is not, then leave it there with the concierge to hand it over to him. He has been gone from here since yesterday, and did not come back this evening with the housekeeper. I am alone with a person who doesn’t talk, cannot read or write, and find then that there’s hardly anything to eat outside the house. I once had to pick Karl up and bring him here from Vienna, because once he’s there, it’s hard to get him out.”
“I would ask you to please let me know here what is possible. I would have liked to spend a few days quietly, but unfortunately I will probably have to go back into the City because of him.”
“By the way, I ask you not to say anything to anyone. As God is my witness, what I must endure through him. If you can’t get any information from the caretaker in the Johannesgasse, then just send to the Landstrasse where I lived to ask the caretaker where Frau von Niemetz lives, to find out whether he was there, or was coming there, so that she can direct him here right away.” [She was the mother of Karl’s friend Joseph Niemetz, with whom he sometimes stayed.]
“I will reward your servant, as well as reimburse the postage money for the letter.”
“I also ask you to get the letter to my brother Cain [Johann] – And whether Karl is still missing or has been found, please provide me an answer right away.”
“Hurry, your friend, Beethoven.”
“For God’s sake, answer straight away.”
Brandenburg Letter 1891; Anderson Letter 1315. The original is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus (H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 145) and can be seen here:
https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5964697094324224/scan/0
The referenced letters to Karl [Brandenburg 1892] and to Johann [Brandenburg 1893] are not known to exist. The new apartment was on the 4th floor of Johannesgasse 969, even though Beethoven was still living in Baden. Clearly, Beethoven had started moving into the new apartment, but had not yet moved out of the old one entirely.
There are a few mentions of Beethoven in the advertisements of today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.230) at 962. J. Bermann once again offers his new printing of the three piano sonatas, op.10. Anton Diabelli & Co. also advertises Beethoven’s Sonata Pathètique op.13 as volume 5 of Carl Czerny’s ongoing series The Art of Fingering. Volume 11 of the same set includes a solo piano version of the Andante con Variazioni second movement from Beethoven’s Violin Sonata #9 op.47 (“Kreutzer“), arranged by the editor. Czerny’s description is, “These variations, taken from one of Beethoven’s famous works, are arranged here for the pianoforte alone in such a way that they can be seen as an original work that is equally rich, useful, beautiful, and brilliant.” Czerny would later arrange the entire sonata for piano solo. The series also contains a number of original works by Czerny, as well as the Rondo Scherzando for piano by Beethoven’s former student Ferdinand Ries, op.64/2.