Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

COMPOSITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS OF 1813

259

management, care and arrangement-the most arduous labors of all. I must also thank him in particular, because by the projection of this academy, he gave me the opportunity, long and ardently desired, by means of the composition especially written for this philanthropic purpose and delivered to him without pay, to lay a work of magnitude upon the altar of the fatherland under the existing conditions.

Ludwig van Beethoven.

Why was this document not printed? Beethoven had suddenly quarreled with Mälzel.

Evidence of the impatience with which Beethoven conducted the controversy with the heirs of Prince Kinsky, concerning the payment of the annuity installments, is given by a letter dated "Vienna, December 18, 1813," to Dr. Beyer, a lawyer in Prague, in which he says:

I have many times cursed this unhappy decree through which I have been plunged into numberless sorrows. Oliva is no longer here and it is unendurable to lose so much time in the matter, which I steal from my art only to see things at a standstill. I have now sent a new opinion to Wolff, he wanted to begin legal proceedings, but I think it better as I have written to Wolff, first to send a petition to the general courts-give me your help in the matter and do not let me go to destruction, here, surrounded by innumerable enemies in everything that I do, I am almost desperate. My brother, whom I have overwhelmed with benevolences, with whose consent I certainly am. . . . partly in misery is—my greatest enemy!... I would gladly have taken the entire matter out of Wolff's hands and placed it in yours, but we should only make new enemies.

The ascertained compositions of this year are:

I. Triumphal March, C major, for Kuffner's "Tarpeia.”
II. "Wellington's Victory."

III. Song: "Der Bardengeist" ("On November 3d, 1813").

IV. Canon: "Kurz ist der Schmerz." (First form.) "For Herrn Naue as a souvenir from L. v. Beethoven, Vienna, November 23, 1813." Johann Friedrich Naue, successor to Türk as Musik-Direktor, etc., at Halle, born in 1790, appears to have been in Vienna on a visit this Autumn.

V. Irish airs quite, or nearly, completed.

Publications:

In Thomson's preface to the First Volume of "A Select Collection of Original Irish Airs," dated "Edinburgh, Anno 1814," he remarks: "After the volume was printed and some copies of it had been circulated, an opportunity occurred of sending it to Beethoven, who corrected the few inaccuracies that had escaped the notice of the Editor and his friends; and he trusts it will be found without a single error."

It is to be inferred from this, that the first volume was published, at the latest, this year; but the corrections were not sent to Thomson until September, 1814. The songs were originally printed in numbers. Thus

of the first volume of the Scotch Songs, principally by Koželuch and Pleyel, the First, Third, and Fourth Sets, now before the writer, contain 25 songs each.

It may be assumed then that at least a part of the Irish Songs came from the press in 1813. The song "Der Bardengeist" was published as a supplement to the "Musenalmanach" of Joh. Erichson for 1814. The preface of the almanac is dated November 20, 1813, and the book was doubtless published before New Year's Day, 1814.

Chapter XIV

The Year 1814-Popular Performances Repeated-Revision of "Fidelio"-The Opera Succeeds-Anton Schindler Enters Beethoven's Life The Quarrel with Mälzel-Moscheles-The Vienna Congress-J. W. Tomaschek-Count Rasoumowsky's Palace Burned-Compositions of the

Year.

O

N the last day of 1813, the "Wiener Zeitung" contained this public notice:

MUSICAL ACADEMY

The desire of a large number of music-lovers whom I esteem as worthy of honor, to hear again my grand instrumental composition on "Wellington's Victory at Vittoria," makes it my pleasant duty herewith to inform the valued public that on Sunday, the 2d of January, I shall have the honor to perform the aforementioned composition with added vocal pieces and choruses and aided by the most admirable musicians of Vienna in the R. I. large Ridotto Room for my benefit.

Tickets of admission are to be had daily in the Kohlmarkt in the house of Baron v. Haggenmüller, to the right of the court on the ground floor, in the comptoir of Baron v. Pasqualati; parterre 2 fl. gallery 3 fl. Vienna standard.

Ludwig van Beethoven.

Mälzel saw, therefore, that the objects for which he had sacrificed the "Battle," for which he had lost so many precious weeks and had spent so much labor and pains, were accomplished in so far as Beethoven's new works were now the subjects of general interest and curiosity, and their repeated performance to large and profitable audiences was secured. To his courage and sagacity this was wholly due. It is thoroughly unjust to deny or ignore the value of his services. What his feelings were now, to find himself deprived of all share in the benefit resulting from them, and therefore left without compensation, may readily be conceived. His Mechanical Trumpeter was necessarily discarded with himself, and Beethoven had to find something to take its place on the

programme. Hence this note (in December) to Moritz Lichnowsky:

If you, worthy Count, want to take part in our consultation I inform you that it will be held this afternoon at half after 3 o'clock in the Spielmann house on the Graben 1188 in the fourth storey at Hr. Weinmüller's-it would rejoice me time permitting if you were to attend. Entirely your

Beethoven.

The result of this conference was the selection of Nos. 6, 7 and 8 of the "Ruins of Athens" music, viz: the "Solemn March with Chorus" and the concluding Bass Air, sung by Weinmüller, with the choruses. The last was exceedingly appropriate in a concert in the Redouten-Saal, it being the number in which (as in the old Bonnian "Blick in die Zukünft") the bust of the monarch is made suddenly to appear. To insure the effectiveness of this is the object of a humorous note to Zmeskall, on New Year's Day.

All would be well if there were but a curtain, without it the Air will fall through. Only to-day do I learn this from S. and it grieves me-let there be a curtain even if it be only a bed-curtain, only a sort of screen which can be removed for the moment, a veil, etc. There must be something, the Air is too dramatic, too much written for the theatre, to be effective in a concert; without a curtain or something of the sort all of its meaning will be lost!-lost!-lost!-To the devil with everything! The Court will probably come, Baron Schweiger asked me to go there at once, Archduke Karl admitted me to his presence and promised to come. The Empress did not accept nor did she decline.

Hangings!!! or the Air and I will hang to-morrow. Farewell in the new year, I press you as warmly to my heart as in the old-with or without curtain.

The orchestra was for the most part composed of the same professional and amateur artists as had taken part in the two previous concerts, so that the rehearsals were comparatively inexpensive, the only new music being the selections from "The Ruins"; but Salieri, as director of the cannonade, gave place to Hummel. Franz Wild, the singer, was present and records in his "Autobiography" his reminiscences of the occasion thus:

He (Beethoven) mounted the conductor's platform, and the orchestra, knowing his weakness, found itself plunged into an anxious excitement which was justified only too soon; for scarcely had the music begun before its creator offered a bewildering spectacle. At the piano passages he sank upon his knee, at the forte he leaped up, so that his figure, now shrivelling to that of a dwarf, disappeared under the desk and anon stretched up far above it like a giant, his hands and arms working as if with the beginning of the music a thousand lives had entered every member. At first this happened without disturbance of the effect of the

SUCCESS OF THE BATTLE MUSIC

263

composition, for the disappearance and appearance of his body was synchronous with the dying away and the swelling of the music; but all at once the genius ran ahead of his orchestra and the master disappeared at the forte passages and appeared again at the piano. Now danger was imminent and at the critical moment Chapelmaster Umlauf took the commander's staff and it was indicated to the orchestra that he alone was to be obeyed. For a long time Beethoven noticed nothing of the change; when he finally observed it, a smile came to his lips which, if ever a one which kind fate permitted me to see could be called so, deserved to be called "heavenly."

The composer had every reason to be satisfied with the result, for not only was it pecuniarly profitable but

the applause was general and reached the highest ecstasy. Many things had to be repeated, and there was a unanimous expression of a desire on the part of all the hearers to hear the compositions again and often, and to have occasion more frequently to laud and admire our native composer for works of his brilliant invention.

So speaks the "Wiener Zeitung" on the 9th, which on the 24th of January printed this:

NOTE OF THANKS.

I had the good fortune on the occasion of a performance of my compositions at the concert given by me on January 2, to have the support and help of a large number of the most admirable and celebrated artists of the city, and to see my works brilliantly made known by the hands of such virtuosos. Though these artists may have felt themselves rewarded by their own zeal for art and the pleasure which they gave the public through their talents, it is yet my duty publicly to express to them my thanks for their mark of friendship for me and ready support. Ludwig van Beethoven.

"Only in this room" (the large Redoutensaal), says Schindler, "was the opportunity offered to put into execution the manifold intentions of the composer in the Battle Symphony. With the help of the long corridors and the rooms opposite to each other the opposing forces were enabled to approach each other and the desired illusion was strikingly achieved." Schindler was among the listeners on this occasion and gives assurance that the enthusiasm awakened by the performance, "heightened by the patriotic feeling of those memorable days," was overwhelming.

Among the direct consequences of this sudden and boundless popularity of Beethoven's music, to which Mälzel had given the occasion and impulse, was one all the more gratifying, because totally unexpected—the revival of "Fidelio."

"The Inspizienten of the R. I. Court Opera, Saal, Vogel and Weinmüller, about this time were granted a performance for their

« ForrigeFortsett »