The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
[134] “Aus meinem Leben,” Berlin, 1861, Vol. II, p. 24 _et seq._
[135] It was probably the performance by Böhm.
[136] Antonia Cibbini, _née_ Koželuch, was among those who attended the
performance of the Quartet. In the conversation which followed, Karl
tells his uncle: “The Cibbini looked to me like a bacchante when the
Quartet was played; it pleased her so greatly.”
[137] By the “Characteristic Symphony” Smart meant the Ninth, which
he had directed at its first performance in London on March 21, 1825.
Mr. Thayer visited Sir George in February, 1861, and received from
him permission to make a transcript of all the entries in his journal
touching the meetings with Beethoven, also supplementing them with oral
information. The journal remained in manuscript for forty years after
Sir George’s death and then was edited by H. Bertram Cox and C. L. E.
Cox and published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1907, under the title:
“Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart.” The extracts here
quoted are from the book, and show signs of having been revised after
Thayer copied them.
[138] Not the composer, but a pianoforte maker of Vienna.
[139] The Thayer transcript has it correctly: “at the inn _Zum wilden
Mann_.”
[140] In the Thayer transcript: “the second of the three MSS.
quartettes bought by Schlesinger.”
[141] Dr. Deiters prints in a foot-note a different version of this
story from Castelli’s memoirs. According to this it was Castelli who
set the theme for Beethoven, he having, after long urging, said,
“Very well, in the name of the three devils; but Castelli, who has no
idea of pianoforte playing, must give me a theme.” Thereupon Castelli
brushed his finger up and down three adjacent keys of the pianoforte
and these notes Beethoven continually wove into the music which he
improvised for an hour, by the clock. Smart names the ten men who
composed Schlesinger’s party; Castelli’s is not among them, and Smart’s
story, noted in his journal at the time, is unquestionably correct.
Schlesinger may have given another dinner, or Castelli’s imagination
been livelier than his memory.
[142] When Mr. Thayer visited Sir George Smart in London in 1861 he
made the following notes of the conversation: Smart spoke, or rather
wrote on Beethoven’s slate;--he had been warned not to write in
Beethoven’s books--in French, a language which Beethoven (as he says)
spoke fluently. He (Smart) was particularly desirous of understanding
Beethoven’s intentions as to the performance of the Choral Sym. and
spoke with him about the recitative for instruments in the last
movement. Beethoven’s reply was:
“The recitative in strict time.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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