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 …
After a break of a little over two weeks of lost conversation books, Conversation Book 110 begins being used about today. This is a volume of 58 leaves, the first and last three pages of which are blank, other than red X’s drawn on two of them by Anton Schindler. …
The fourth Royal Academic Concert is held today in London, England, and opens with Beethoven’s Sinfonie Pastorale. The Harmonicon for June, 1826 (Nr.XLII) reported at 130, “The Pastoral Symphony was well performed, but in its best state is always too long, particularly the second movement, which, abounding in repetitions, might …
Sometime around now, Beethoven writes an undated letter to fishmonger Therese Jonas (c.1775-1837), sending along 5 florins W.W. “I respectfully request a carp of 3 or even 4 pounds, or better yet, a pike of at least 3 pounds. Should none of these fish be available, I request that you …
A single leaf from a now-lost conversation book used around today survives in the Bonn Beethovenhaus, BH 53, pp.4-5. Former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler visits Beethoven, delivering the text of a libretto for a romantic opera in three acts, “Die Mainacht oder der Blocksberg” [The May Night, or The Blocksberg]. …
Today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.102) at 440 includes an advertisement from S.A. Steiner & Co. for the “Newest Quartet (in E-flat) for two violins, viola and violoncello, by Ludwig van Beethoven. 127th Work. 3 fl. 36 kr. Conv. Münze.” This edition was published by Schott’s in Mainz, though Steiner makes no …
Today is the Ascension Day holiday in Austria. Beethoven writes a letter dated “Thursday, the 4th of May” to unpaid assistant Karl Holz. “Most urgently and with all haste: As recently as the day before yesterday, I did not believe you would arrive so early; moreover, I was detained somewhere …
Sometime about now, Beethoven begins using Pocket Sketchbook aut.9/4. This bundle of 21 leaves is held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. This was another homemade sketchbook assembled by Beethoven himself, and he stitched six of the leaves in backwards. The sketchbook is entirely devoted to the String Quartet op.131, mostly the …
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 …
Probably today, or possibly tomorrow, a new maid starts working for Beethoven. She lasts 33 days, with her last day being June 3 or 4. The fifth concert of the London Philharmonic Society is held this evening, with Sir George Smart, who visited Beethoven last September, conducting. The second act …
According to the April 26 letter to Holz, Brandenburg 2150, Anderson Letter 1482, Beethoven expected Holz for mid-day dinner today. The May, 1826 issue of The Harmonicon (Nr.XLI) includes at 100-101 a foreign musical report from Warsaw that includes a very early mention in England of young Frederic Chopin. The …
In London, a seriously ill Carl Maria von Weber attends the premiere of the opera Aladdin by Henry Bishop (1787-1856) at Drury Lane Theatre. Bishop had intended it to compete with Weber’s Oberon, which was playing at Covent Garden. Upon Weber’s entrance, the house rose. During the “Hunter’s Chorus,” the …
A benefit concert is held in the Hanover Square Rooms in London by Mr. Bellamy this evening. The instrumental music was comprised of the overtures to Iphigenia by Gluck, and to Prometheus by Beethoven, the remainder of the concert being devoted to vocal music. The Harmonicon for June 1826, Nr.XLII …
The fourth and final Concert spirituel of the season is held today, and it opens with Beethoven Symphony Nr.4 in B-flat major. The Wiener Theater-Zeitung of May 13, 1826 (Nr.57) at 231, says “Only the utterly insatiable artistic zeal of [Ferdinand Piringer, Baron von Lannoy, and Schmidt] could have brought …
Beethoven dictates to Nephew Karl a sort of letter of conciliation, if not exactly apology, dated today to unpaid assistant Karl Holz, once he has calmed down. “Dear friend!” “You can be assured that I no longer think about the recent incident at all, and that this will never change …
The surviving leaf from the now-lost conversation book (Bonn Beethovenhaus H.C. Bodmer Collection Br 288, SBH 513) that covers yesterday contains at the end what looks like it may be the beginning of today’s shopping list: “Homeopathic chocolate.” This entry suggests that Beethoven’s digestive system is still bothering him. Anton …
Composer and pianist Anton Halm, who had been commissioned by Mathias Artaria to arrange the Grosse Fuge Finale from the String Quartet op.130 for piano four hands, writes a letter dated today to Beethoven. “Most esteemed Herr v. Beethoven,” “I have finished your Fugue, which I have the honor to …