The housekeeper, Elise Seidl, has to run out for an errand and tells Beethoven she will be back soon. Beethoven goes to a coffee house and reads today’s newspapers. He makes a note of an advertisement for “pique bedding in the English style.” Conversation Book 110, 55v. On the back …
The new housekeeper, Elise Seidl, starts work today for Beethoven. The first order of business is shopping. She has Beethoven take a look at the pantry with her, so they can go through and see what is needed and she will go shopping. Since the most recent kitchen maid was …
Nephew Karl visits Uncle Ludwig today. He gives Ludwig at least two pair of gloves from Brother Johann. One pair cannot be cleaned at home; the other gloves can be. Karl observes that the maid washed her feet in the water bucket, and the kettle is leaking. Uncle Ludwig asks …
Nephew Karl comes to see Uncle Ludwig today to help sort out the transition between servants. Elise Seidl is being interviewed again for a position as housekeeper, possibly having her cooking trial. Probably after she leaves, Beethoven wants unpaid assistant Karl Holz to deliver his answer to publisher Mathias Artaria …
Beethoven needs to decide whether or not to keep the maid on. Nephew Karl comes and talks to him, telling him that he needs to speak to the maid about it, because otherwise her time is up on Thursday, and he will have no servants at all on Friday and …
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz comes to Beethoven’s apartment fairly early, apparently arriving before Nephew Karl. Poet Christoph Kuffner sends Beethoven many greetings; he is working on the libretto for Saul with heart and soul. Pianist Dorothea von Ertmann (1781-1849), to whom Beethoven dedicated the piano sonata op.101, is expected in …
Copyist Wenzel Rampl visits Beethoven about today. They talk about the strange weather they are having in Vienna; at the start of May it was cold, and now it is hot. [According to the May 30, 1826 Wiener Zeitung (Nr.121) at 516, the temperature in Vienna at 3 p.m. has …
The current housekeeper tells Beethoven that she knows both of the prospective housekeeper candidates that are under consideration. One of them cannot cook but the other cooks well. Karl joins his uncle as promised yesterday. Beethoven makes a note “No 5 Carp,” which is followed by some calligraphic doodling by …
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz comes to visit Beethoven with news that piano maker Conrad Graf intends to come tomorrow morning. He asks whether Beethoven will stay at home to meet him. He would have come earlier, but he had too much to do. Beethoven is annoyed with Holz’s friend, publisher …
Today, Conversation Book 111 begins being used. This book is used in tandem with Conversation Book 110 over the remainder of the month of May. Book 111 is a smaller volume of only 22 leaves. The leaves are bound out of order; the last four leaves (19-22) are used first, …
Nephew Karl comes to visit his Uncle Ludwig today. The housekeeper tells him the following menu for today: Soup, veal udderBeef with chive sauce{vegetables} Pie with oxtailRoast: PartridgesHazel Hen. For supper, there is rabbit. Uncle Ludwig doesn’t think there is any rabbit in the apartment. The housekeeper says she will …
Beethoven makes a note to himself in the conversation book, apparently despairing about the situation with Karl: “Resign from the g__________p, [guardianship] it won’t work.” Conversation Book 110, 30r. Beethoven’s current housekeeper (who seems to have been there only a few days, since the prior housekeeper’s service was up on …
Nephew Karl comes to visit his uncle. He has gone to see Mathias Artaria twice, but he was not in. Artaria did leave a message that he talked to Holz today, and that he can give Ludwig the answer to his question. [Ludwig wanted to speak with Artaria about Anton …
Today is the Whit Monday holiday, and Nephew Karl is visiting his uncle, despite complaining Saturday about all the work his professors have assigned over the holiday weekend. Karl and his uncle are discussing wines, as Karl inquires about the cost of the red wine his uncle has. The one …
Today is Whitsunday. Unpaid assistant and Nephew Karl both come to visit Ludwig today. Karl wasn’t able to get Mathias Artaria to come today. Holz notes that it’s difficult to find him at home. Karl adds, “Artaria has so much to do these days because of [the banker] Fries’ bankruptcy …
Nephew Karl comes to visit Uncle Ludwig today. He has spoken with his landlady, Frau Schlemmer, about various market things, like butter, eggs and the like. Butter costs 42 kreutzers per pound. But in a household like Uncle Ludwig’s, where everything is made with butter, he can save 12 kreutzers …
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz comes to visit Beethoven this afternoon. He went to see Alois Zettler at the Censor’s office yesterday, but he still doesn’t know anything about the copyright decree that supposedly protects Beethoven’s compositions. Head Censor Franz Sartori said that Beethoven should not worry; nothing will happen against …
Beethoven makes a reminder note in the conversation book: In the Imperial Augartensaal, a morning concert is given by violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. The concert had originally been scheduled for May 1, but was postponed for a week and a half due to bad weather. The concert opens with the “latest …
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz visits Beethoven today. Beethoven is concerned about a comment from the housekeeper that the firewood in the basement is getting wet. Holz is skeptical, because they are not near the river. The wood is very dry, he reports, from an ironwood tree. He could have had …
The Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.19 of May 10, 1826 at 150-51 includes a rather fanciful and mocking account. The writer has been told that there will be a concert tonight at the Berlin opera house, with a symphony by Beethoven. “First kind of shock, a joyful one. What? I …