Beethoven is still sick and still irritable about being sick and even more so about his treatment. Nephew Karl goes to visit his uncle’s other current doctor, Dr. Staudenheim, with the list of prescriptions that Dr. Braunhofer gave. Staudenheim’s opinion is that if the powders prescribed cause him pain, he …
Ludwig is still unwell, but is slowly recovering from his intestinal discomfort. He continues to grouse about his restrictions. Nephew Karl finishes paying off a 5 florin bill for his uncle that had been partially paid. Dr. Braunhofer comes to visit his patient, probably in the early afternoon. Beethoven complains …
Nephew Karl comes by the apartment in the morning to check on his uncle’s condition. Ludwig is a difficult patient today; he is ill enough to want something to be done, but feeling enough better so that he raises any number of complaints. Karl reminds him that the housekeeper will …
Nephew Karl comes to Uncle Ludwig’s apartment fairly early, having already come from Dr. Anton Braunhofer. It’s 7 a.m. when Karl arrives. He tells his uncle that Braunhofer will be coming shortly and will prescribe something different for Ludwig’s persistent intestinal distress. Brother Johann may have arrived with Karl. He …
Nephew Karl goes to see Dr. Braunhofer again today about Uncle Ludwig’s intestinal distress. Braunhofer says that staying up late at night is not good. The housekeeper needs to make a barley soup for him, without parsley. And if he has any appetite, a couple of soft-boiled eggs would be …
Early this morning, Karl asks his uncle whether the prospective housekeeper is to buy 2 pounds of meat again, and whether he wants veal in the soup. Uncle Ludwig says he does, and asks when she is coming. Karl tells him she said today, at 7:30 a.m. Uncle Ludwig is …
Nephew Karl is discussing the quartet op.127 with his uncle. There is no doubt that Schott’s wanted the score very badly, but it’s not clear what their agent in Vienna Fries might have written to them about all the delays in getting the score. They are going to arrange for …
Nephew Karl stopped by the agents for Schott’s, Fries & Co. this morning, to let them know that the engraver’s copy of the quartet op.127 will be ready today. They have been agitating for it for quite a while. Karl says, “The Messrs Fries were not particularly polite. They found …
Nephew Karl asks whether it would be all right with Uncle Ludwig if he were to go to the theater today. There is a new play by Baron Zedlitz, which is said to be very cute. [Liebe findet ihre Wege (Love Finds its Ways). Brother Johann was also enthusiastic about …
Beethoven grows more seriously ill with the intestinal disorder that includes constipation and severe pain. Although it has not yet interfered with his activities too badly, as the illness progresses he will become bedridden for several weeks, and completely unable to work. His correspondence also drops off significantly, other than …
Violinist Joseph Mayseder gets married today at the Michaelerkirche. The German conversation book editors advise that Mayseder’s bride is 23-year-old Caroline Tiller from Pressburg, daughter of Casimir Tiller, an officer to a noble house, and his wife Theresia, née Wagner. Vienna, Pfarre St. Michael, Trauungs-Protokoll (May, 1804-December 1826), 1825, Wedding …
Nephew Karl is at Uncle Ludwig’s apartment today when the tailor arrives. He says that even in the case of the other vest, a heavier black fabric is needed on the outside, because simpler fabric won’t hold the shape. It’s stiff because of the dye, but it will get softer …
Nephew Karl visits his Uncle Ludwig again today, and finds him out of sorts. “Good fellow! What doesn’t seem right to you this time?” [Ludwig’s answer is not recorded, but it probably has something to do with the servants, since the next comment from Karl is that the other housekeeper …
Conversation Book 87 begins being used today. This book covers about two weeks of time. Nephew Karl’s entries are much more sporadic, probably due to his new field of studies. From his comments, he has started attending the Polytechnic Institute in the interim, shortly after Easter Sunday, April 3. This …
Beethoven writes a letter today to his former pupil Ferdinand Ries in Godesberg, regarding scores for the May Lower Rhenish Music Festival, where Ries is to conduct. “My dear Ries! Just the bare minimum – in the score of the symphony that was sent to you, so far as I …
This is probably a good time to check in on Beethoven’s progress with the late quartets after op.127, which premiered a little over a month ago. Judging by his progress in the surviving desk sketchbooks, he had largely completed the first movement of the Quartet in A minor, op.132 earlier …
Beethoven apparently takes ill about now, and remains unwell for the balance of the month, complaining of abdominal pain off and on, to the point that later he will be consulting multiple doctors, who visit him as many as three or four times a day. The Dresden Abendzeitung Nr.153 of …
Johann Andreas Streicher responds to C.F. Peters’ letter of March 15 that complains about Beethoven’s conduct with regard to publishers. “What you tell me about Beethoven is absolutely not unexpected, although it bothers me very much that he does not behave properly toward you, toward the best publisher and the …
Nephew Karl probably begins his studies at the Polytechnic Institute today, yesterday, Easter Monday, having been a holiday. [As frequent contributor Birthe Kibsgaard points out, Karl is starting at the Polytechnic mid-term, which will make things more difficult for him.] Beethoven’s advertisement for a housekeeper runs again in the Intelligenzblatt …
Today is Easter Monday, which is approximately the date of the first of Ludwig Rellstab’s visits to Beethoven while he is in Vienna. Rellstab’s account as it appears in Sonneck, Beethoven: Impressions of his Contemporaries at 177-183 follows. “So one morning with a beating heart I resolved to set out …