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Beethoven’s friend Tobias Haslinger comes from Vienna to Baden today. He and visitor from London Johann Andreas Stumpff will walk with Ludwig Nephew Karl into the countryside, possibly towards Vöslau to the southwest, in the direction of Count Moritz Fries’ vineyards. [They instead decide to wander to the Helenental Valley …

Beethoven probably today writes an errand list while in Baden. To Brother: fine postal paper.+Key in Vienna.+Barber’s razor. After walking and working, he relaxes in a coffee house and reads yesterday’s Wiener Zeitung. He copies down the statutory price for a pound of beef, being 7 kreuzers C.M. He seems …

The August, 1824 issue of The Harmonicon magazine (Nr.XX), published in London, contains at 151-152 a report on the current state of music in Belgium. In Brussels, distinguished violinist M. van der Planken, has for the last three years headed a society of amateurs, who regularly give concerts every winter. …

Today is the first day of the sixteenth meeting of the musical amateurs of the county of York, England, in the city of Sheffield. This event also served to christen the magnificent new music-hall, erected at an expense of about five thousand pounds. “This noble room is ninety-eight feet long, …

Brother Johann visits this afternoon. Perhaps seeing Schuppanzigh’s discussion of copyists on the preceding page from yesterday, Johann mentions that he called on Frau Schlemmer. She hopes to bring everything, the last of the subscription copies of the Missa Solemnis, by Sunday, February 1. Johann mentions he came by yesterday …

Today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, Nr. 41 at col. 674-676 contains a substantial review of Beethoven’s Meeres-Stille und Glückliche Fahrt, op.112 in full score as printed by Steiner in Vienna. The thoughtful review is by former editor Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769-1842), who had visited Beethoven several times earlier this year …

Ferdinand Piringer, friend of Franz Xavier Gebauer, leader of the Concerts spirituels and sometimes conductor, writes a letter dated today to Beethoven, addressing him as “Domine Generalissime!” [It seems Piringer was part of the running joke between Beethoven and Haslinger and others at the Steiner publishing company, where they formed …

Friedrich Rochlitz, now in Baden, writes to music publisher Christoph Härtel in Leipzig a very long letter, telling him of his three meetings with Beethoven: the upsetting meeting at the Steiner firm last month, and his more gratifying meetings with Beethoven and Schubert over dinner and again by happenstance in …

Things improve with the second performance of Rossini’s opera Zelmira, and Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung editor Friedrich August Kanne goes on to rave in his review about Rossini’s wealth of ideas, and the beauty of the singers’ voices. The tenor Sgr. David is particularly singled out for the way he moves …

On or about this date, success! Beethoven tells Carpani that he will see Rossini, most likely tomorrow. On the evening of the 27th, Rossini attends a performance of Weber’s Der Freischütz. Rossini did not reciprocate Weber’s hostility to him, expressed in a number of critical reviews, but rather considered Weber …

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) today marries Isabella Colbran (1785-1845), former prima donna of the Teatro San Carlo and frequent leading lady of his operas. She also was the former mistress of the impresario of the Teatro San Carlo, Domenico Barbaja (1777-1841). The wedding takes place in a small church, Our Lady …

Conversation Book 14, leaves 46r through 50r Beethoven’s draft letter to Blöchlinger, the headmaster of Karl’s boarding school, contains heavy-handed and frequently pathetic instructions for how Karl should be dealt with. Despite his claim that Karl was engaging in “terrible deeds” in the previous letter, Beethoven does note here that …