Unfortunately, Beethoven, never a model tenant, gets in trouble with his new landlady at 969 Johannesgasse, Frau Kletschka, almost immediately. According to family traditions related by her great-grandson, a well-known Viennese doctor, Julié v. Lavandal, “Beethoven came forward as the tenant for the apartment on the fourth floor, which had …
The surviving conversation books resume at last with Book 78. The book contains 36 leaves. Page 10v is crossed out with Beethoven’s red crayon that he used for editing. The pages have been stapled together out of order; leaves 11 through 36 should come before leaves 1 through 10. This …
Fries & Co., the Vienna financial agent for B. Schott’s Sons based in Mainz, acknowledges the receipt of their letter of August 12 with an altered bill of exchange for 500 florins, in favor of “v.Bethoven.” The firm continues, “This composer has still not given us anything for you, and …
Today’s Wiener Theater-Zeitung (Nr.142) at 567, reports that Ignaz Schuppanzigh (Beethoven’s longtime friend and supporter) is now a member of the Imperial Court Orchestra. He has completed his first cycle of Sunday quartet concerts for the season, and has embarked on his second cycle. “The high level of perfection with …
About today, Beethoven writes to music publisher B. Schott’s Sons in Mainz regarding the delay in getting the promised compositions to them. “I regret to inform you that it will take a little longer to send you the works. There was not that much left to review in the copies, …
You may recall from our October 24th entry that according to the anonymous anecdote in the Neues Wiener Musik-Zeitung of July 15, 1858 at 110, Carl Friedrich Müller was after four weeks supposed to pick up the completed Waltz for piano WoO 84, for inclusion in his set of 40 …
Today, Beethoven completes his little Waltz in E-flat, WoO 84. He had been asked to contribute to Carl Friedrich Müller’s Musikalisches Angebinde zum neuen Jahre [Musical Gift for the New Year], a collection of forty waltzes by forty different composers. Müller was a disabled Viennese actor who published several of …
Carl Schwenke returns to visit Beethoven, to collect the manuscript that was promised last week. Beethoven has written out for him a four-part canon, punning on his name, “Schwenke dich ohne Schwänke,” [Swing without Wavering] WoO 187. The whereabouts of the original manuscript given to Schwenke are unknown, but several …
A grand musical Akademie for the benefit of public charity institutions is held at the Kärntnertor Theater this evening, Leopold Day, to a crowded house, despite increased prices. Opening the very lengthy concert bill of fourteen pieces, which featured the entire Italian opera company, is Beethoven’s Overture to Fidelio, op.72. …
Today the Emperor holds a benefit for the Widows’ Institute of the local medical faculty in the Redoutensaal, with Archduke Franz, Archduchess Sophie and Archduke Anton all in attendance, as well as many members of the educated classes and high officials. Generous gifts are given by the Emperor and the …
Today, a pianist and composer named Carl Schwenke visits Beethoven. Schwenke had previously written to Beethoven in 1822 asking for something in his handwriting (Brandenburg Letter 1500) Beethoven finally got around to granting his request on this visit. Schwenke noted in his memoirs, “[Beethoven] received me very kindly, and as …
Today’s entry is by Guest Editor Birthe Kibsgaard. The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung published today (Nr.46) contains at 752 a short review of the publication of Grand Exercice di Bravura en forme de Rondeau brillant, op.47, by Beethoven’s former pupil Carl Czerny, published by Cappi & Diabelli. “No one would …
Today’s Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Nr.90) at 360 includes an announcement of a forthcoming musical Akademie benefit concert by G. Lewy, first hornist of the Imperial Opera Orchestra, to be held on Sunday, November 21 at 12:30 p.m. in the National Assembly Hall. The opening piece on the program is …
Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (1802-1878) today in the early evening marries Princess Sophie of Bavaria at the Augustiner Church in Vienna. [Sophie’s half-sister Caroline Augusta was also Franz Karl’s stepmother, having married his father in 1816.] The wedding ceremony is conducted by His Imperial Highness and Eminence Archduke Rudolph, …
Among the compositions offered for sale today by T.Mollo in the Wiener Zeitung (Nr.252) at 1064 are the first two parts of the “Morceaux choisis [Selected Pieces] de Beethoven, arrangé à grand Orchestre” by Ignaz von Seyfried, and published in Leipzig by H.A. Probst. According to KH2, these first two …
Today’s post is by Guest Editor Birthe Kibsgaard. There is a lot of festivity (concerts, receptions, processions in the city) in Vienna the next couple of weeks because of the upcoming wedding between Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Beethoven probably misses most of it – …
Today’s Vienna musikalische Zeitung (Nr.87) includes at 346-347 a review by editor Friedrich August Kanne of the Six Variations with Coda on a Theme of Beethoven for violin and piano by the composers Joseph Mayseder, Franz Clement, Joseph Böhm, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Hellmesberger and Léon de Saint-Lubin. The theme is identified …
Today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.247) includes at 1039 a repeat of Anton Diabelli’s advertisement for the ongoing series of Carl Czerny’s Die Kunst des Fingersatzes (The Art of Fingering), which includes in volume 5 Beethoven’s Sonata pathètique op.13 and in volume 11 Czerny’s arrangement of the second movement (Andante con variazioni) …
Today’s issue of the Wiener Theaterzeitung (Nr.128) at 511-12 contains an appreciation of the Josephstadt Theater, where Beethoven’s former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler serves as concertmaster. We present here a few excerpts of this laudatory article. “Something about the Josephstadt Theater in general. “How fortunate the insightful management of this …
In today’s Zeitung für die elegante Welt [Newspaper for the Elegant World], Nr.207 at 1662, published in Leipzig, there is a brief report about Beethoven’s friend, pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles. “Mr. Moscheles, whose mastery a large audience had the opportunity to admire at his concert held last Monday, will, …