BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, March 16, 1824

[ad_1]

Nephew Karl is at Uncle Ludwig’s condominium this morning. One among Beethoven’s shirts has a purple stain on the shoulder. The housekeeper says it comes from laying it on one thing product of iron. The wash must be left till the day after tomorrow, in any other case she gained’t have the ability to end her work tomorrow. There are just a few issues to be soaked immediately, and that isn’t good for the wash. She can be going to the meat distributors on the Lichtensteg, a slender road close to the Hoher Market. Karl will stroll together with her, for the reason that Lichtenstag may be very close to the college. Karl asks how a lot he ought to spend.

After he leaves, unpaid assistant Anton Schindler comes round. The copying is way behind, a message that copyist Paul Maschek had tried to get by means of to Beethoven a number of days in the past with out success. If that they had the 4 copied string components for the Missa Solemnis quickly to proofread, then there wouldn’t must be such a rush with the wind devices. Schindler says he’ll come again within the afternoon, and by then perhaps he [probably meaning Maschek] can have introduced it [likely referring to more parts for proofreading.]

Schindler goes to Brother Johann’s immediately, since Johann has a terrific many directions earlier than he leaves [for Linz, where he was considering the purchase of another apothecary. The instructions probably relate to keeping an eye on Johann’s unfaithful wife Therese, rather than matters related to the concert.]

1827 Portrait of Henriette Sontag by Franz Xaver Stöber

Maybe after coming back from Johann’s, Schindler has some disagreeable information from soprano Henriette Sontag, who was a shock visitor at Beethoven’s for dinner Sunday, two days in the past. “The few drops of wine from the primary urgent additionally brought about a terrific explosion in her, in order that the efficiency of Der Tauscher needed to be cancelled yesterday. The night time earlier than final, she vomited 15 instances. Yesterday night, nonetheless, it was higher. Alto Caroline Unger’s response was simply precisely the other.” Beethoven feedback on their sturdiness, inflicting Schindler to agree, “They’re heroines!”

Apparently the women are unaccustomed to ingesting wine, and it’s unhealthy wine, because it seems. Sontag was speculated to have a rehearsal of a Court docket live performance yesterday morning, March 15. If she didn’t present up, she would have misplaced the 24-ducat price, so she despatched phrase she was feeling higher and would come.

[Schindler is at minimum grossly exaggerating for effect, if not lying outright to Beethoven. According to editor Theodore Albrecht, no performance of Der Taucher was cancelled due to Sontag’s illness or otherwise. That opera was not even scheduled to be performed on Sunday night (a ballet was on the calendar), and Monday night’s performance of Der Taucher occurred as scheduled, though whether Sontag took part is unknown. Not only that, but the Court concert scheduled for today was already postponed until March 30th, and the rehearsal was likewise postponed until the 29th. Albrecht credibly suggests that Schindler may have been cruelly trying to disturb Beethoven as petty revenge for the composer’s anger at having two frauleins suddenly show up for Sunday dinner, with little warning from Schindler, who knew at minimum that Unger intended to come.]

Schindler added some fraudulent feedback, after Beethoven’s loss of life, on the finish of this dialog guide about Sontag and Unger and having higher and more healthy wine sooner or later.

Dialog E-book 59, 14v-15v. That concludes Dialog E-book 59. E-book 60 follows a pair days later, starting on about Friday, March 19. There could also be a really brief lacking guide in between, or Beethoven merely doesn’t have any guests on the seventeenth and 18th.

Anton Mayrhofer, the registry director of the Lord Excessive Steward’s workplace, points a bureaucratic decree to Beethoven. The composer has utilized to the unsuitable place for permission to carry a musical Akademie within the imperial Redoutensaal. Beethoven wants to use for that first on the Excessive Police Director’s workplace, after which as soon as permission is granted, he wants to use to Domenico Barbaja, the lessee of the Kärntnertor Theater and the Redoutensaal, for securing the usage of the corridor itself.

Brandenburg Letter 1795, Albrecht Letter 348. The textual content of the decree is discovered within the Vienna Court docket and State Archive (Normal Directorate, Carton 69, Court docket Opera 1823-1825, Nr.6/1824.)



[ad_2]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *