The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
The circumstance that the composer’s new apartments were in the lodging
of Count Peter Erdödy strongly suggests the probability that his great
intimacy with the Countess dates from the time when he became her near
neighbor upon his moving into the Pasqualati house four years before.
The close of the letter to Oppersdorff contains the earliest discovered
allusion to one of the most singular events in Beethoven’s life. In
the autumn of 1807, Jerome Bonaparte, the Corsican lawyer’s youngest
son, who had spent his boyhood and youth mostly at sea, and had not
yet completed his 23d year, found himself at Cassel, bearing the
pompous title of “King of Westphalia.” What could have induced this
half-educated, frivolous, prodigal and effeminate young satrap and
sybarite to sanction an invitation to his court of the composer
most distinguished since Handel for his masculine vigor and manly
independence in his art, is one of those small mysteries which seem
impenetrable. The precise time when, and by what agency this call was
communicated to Beethoven are alike unknown; we only know that before
the first of November, 1808, “Beethoven received the same through the
High Chamberlain of the King of Westphalia, Count Truchsess-Waldburg,
that it was to the office of first Chapelmaster”; and that it led
to events, which will be noticed hereafter. The lists of “Arrivals
in Vienna” during this season contain the names of several old and
new friends of Beethoven, the dates of whose arrival avail in some
instances to correct certain current errors. The following seem worth
copying:
June 1, Joseph Linke, musician, from Breslau; June 23, Count von
Brunswick, comes from Pressburg; July 2, Dominik Dragonetti,
musician, from Venice [London], comes from Trieste; July 10,
Alexander Macco, painter of Anspach, comes from Munich; July 11,
Count Rasoumowsky, comes from Carlsbad; August 27, Herr Ferdinand
Ries, musical composer of Bonn; Nov. 24, Joh. Fried. Reichardt,
Chapelmaster of Hesse-Cassel.
[Sidenote: FOUNDING OF THE RASOUMOWSKY QUARTET]
In the carefully considered “Übersicht des gegenwärtigen Zustandes
der Tonkunst in Wien” of the “Vaterländische Blätter” for May 27 and
31, 1808, it is noted that the violinists Anton Wranitzky and Herr
Volta are “in the service of Prince Lobkowitz; Herr Schlesinger in
that of the Graf Erdödy; Herr Schmidgen of Count Armadé; Breimann of
Esterhazy”; and the like of various performers on other instruments.
But no such note follows the name of Schuppanzigh, “who is particularly
distinguished among quartet players and probably stands alone as a
performer of Beethoven’s compositions.” Nor do the names of Weiss and
Linke appear in the article. This of itself is perhaps enough to expose
the mistake as to the time when the famous Rasoumowsky Quartet was
founded, and to correct the erroneous conclusions drawn from it. But
the date of Linke’s arrival in Vienna is proof positive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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