BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, June 25, 1826
Today marks a critical juncture in the relationship between Ludwig and Nephew Karl as tensions heighten; Karl will later describe this as a "scene."
Ludwig starts an errand list:
Unpaid assistant Karl Holz arrives at Beethoven's apartment first. One of the members of Joseph Mayseder's quartet, possibly cellist Joseph Merk, comes up. Holz says he met him at Dembscher's when they played the first Galitzin quartet [op.127 in E-flat] there. That reminds Holz, there is a discrepancy in the printed version by Schott and the autograph parts for the second violin. In the written parts there was a G. The Schott edition is correct, as it should be, but it is different in the autograph parts. [Holz was clearly showing Beethoven on the parts what he meant, so the conversation book is unclear as to exactly where the discrepancy lay.]
Beethoven asks Holz to arrange for his violins to be restrung. Holz says he will take them to violinmaker Bernhard Stoss. [Beethoven's string quartet instruments were a gift to him from Prince Karl Lichnowsky. Pictured nearby are Beethoven's quartet instruments, courtesy of the Bonn Beethovenhaus.] Beethoven tells Holz he also needs music paper, which he will get from Martin Theyer's shop for small wares on the Kärntnerstrasse, in the building Zur Stadt Nürnberg [At the Sign of the City of Nuremberg.]
Holz is ill; he is again suffering from rheumatic fever. He complains of being cold and having no appetite. How long has this been bothering you, Beethoven asks. "Only since yesterday. I have had it several times. A diet is the best medicine." Although he has no appetite, he is thirstier than usual.
Holz mentions that publisher Maurice Schlesinger in Paris bought Weber's opera Oberon for the sum of 10,000 francs.
Nephew Karl arrives, and his uncle immediately launches into angry accusations about the payments for the laundry worker not being paid on time for the month of May, suggesting that he is accusing Karl of embezzling the payments. Karl defends himself, saying that until now, when the payment was late, the laundry worker was always paid at the same time as the rest of the servants. Holz chimes in that the cost is 9 florins plus the maker's wages, for a total 10. Ludwig has the receipt; he remembers that 4 weeks ago, at the Zum Wilder Mann restaurant, he told Holz that he had received a receipt, and that the laundry worker was paid for May beforehand, as was noted on the receipt.
Karl says all this annoyance is unnecessary; Uncle Ludwig can just ask Frau Schlemmer and she can get the receipt for May. Karl knows his uncle has seen the receipt; it might still be at his place, but he doesn't think so. But if it is, then his uncle will have it. "The washing money has always been paid later, even if the monthly pay was made in advance. There has been no mention at all about the laundry money and the 10 florins for May still being unpaid. Ludwig tells him to go to his apartment to get the receipt. Karl, aggravated, asks if he has to do that today. Ludwig appears to back off from this demand.
Holz, clearly uncomfortable about the angry discussion and accusations, says he needs to go to bed soon. "I have a terrible stabbing pain in my chest; excuse me, but I need to excuse myself," and he departs, leaving Karl and his uncle alone.
Ludwig brings up the laundry again. Karl says that he will find out what the situation is when he sees Frau Schlemmer. It will easily be remedied. Ludwig is insistent and Karl angrily says he will go home then. Why doesn't Karl have the receipt? "I already gave it over," Karl replies.
Ludwig then accuses Karl of carousing and disappearing with his cronies; Brother Johann told him so. This is too much for Karl: "You know when I am at home, to know where I am every single hour is unthinkable, just as little as I know exactly where you are when I come here and I do not find you.—At least I have not been forbidden to go for walks yet; when I go to my classmates, it is not for tutoring but for studying together; I have explained the reason for that to you several times.—Your brother is a miserable man, who would rather lead me astray, so that he can tell me off later, thus he cannot be any authority. I am able to prove my innocence, if it should come to that. However, I did not think at all that we should already be talking about such things now."
A word, possibly "Eggs" is written in the conversation book and then heavily scratched out. Karl does some computations. Ludwig brings up the receipt again, and Karl sullenly tells him that Monday will be soon enough. Johann's stories are a lie anyway.
An exasperated Karl turns to dealing with the household staff. The housekeeper Elisabeth Passy bought things that amount to 40 kreutzers. Now she is trying to belittle the maid [Marie Stiegel], Karl informs his uncle. "In any case, I'll go to find out what it is about." Ludwig asks what is for dinner, and Karl says soup, if she has made one.
Karl corrects Holz's statement; Schlesinger paid Weber 20,000 francs for Oberon, on top of 1000 pounds sterling that the board of the Covent Garden theater in London paid him for the right to present the opera. How much is that in paper money, Uncle Ludwig asks. 45,000 florins W.W., Karl responds.
The servants are still fighting with one another. One says she did not say anything, the other is said to still have some mugs. "I think she is a scoundrel," Karl adds. Perhaps they should bring back the old woman, Barbara Holzmann, Uncle Ludwig suggests again. Karl thinks not; Passy would not like to have the old woman above her, just as she cannot imagine having a second housekeeper by her side.
Karl mentions sugar candy, which is more expensive. But Passy does not need any coffee; Ludwig should not give in to her demands for that, since she seems satisfied otherwise.
Karl mentions corns, though whether his own, his uncle's, or one of the servants', is unclear.
Uncle Ludwig needs to make arrangements to collect the pension for July 1 from Prince Lobkowitz's estate. Karl says that he will go tomorrow morning to get the certificate proving that his uncle is still alive, which will be needed to collect the annuity payment. Tomorrow or the day after, he will also find out about a new housekeeper and report back.
Before he goes, Karl asks whether his uncle exchanged any money. Since he did not, Karl will leave his weekly allowance for later. Uncle Ludwig badgers Karl about the receipt for the laundry again. "If the receipt is not in my room, Schlemmer can give it to me along with the receipt for this month." Uncle Ludwig is skeptical about the receipt, and Karl answers, "It will show up all right." What do you spend all your money on, Ludwig insists. Karl departs, responding, "When I go for a walk—I could pick something up, or something of that sort. I have no other expenses." Uncle and nephew part under less than happy circumstances, and Ludwig will quickly come to regret his angry outburst.
Conversation Book 113, 39r-43v; 1r-3v. [Karl is not quite as innocent as he seems in this exchange. As will come out later in August, Ludwig paid Karl the money for his tutor for the month of June, but Karl keeps the funds himself and does not pay the tutor.]
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