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Beethoven – (Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried, composer, conductor, and musical writer, 1776 Vienna 1841.) Biographische Notitzen (on Ludwig van Beethoven). Autograph manuscript. (1831.) In-2. 12 pp. (3 double leaves) à c. 36-45 lines and 28 lines on the last page resp., 1/2 leaf breaking off after 6 lines. In dark-brown kid portfolio with blind tooled title on front cover + 13-line gilt-stamped in German in the inside cover

“ The ‘Biographical Notes’ / of Ignaz von Seyfried / (1776 Vienna 1841) / as the second earliest comprehensive source / of the Beethoven literature / in the 1831 autograph manuscript / deviating from the 1832 print / regarding one of the / most moving moments in Beethoven’s life / Including i. a. also / his fascinating report of the event / of the / ‘1798. piano match with the virtuoso Wölffl’ ”.

Publications

Ludwig van Beethoven. Studien im Generalbasse … Aus dessen hs. Nachlasse gesammelt u. hrsg. von … Seyfried. (Nebst einem Anhange biographischer Notizen [“ Early  contribution  to  the  Beethoven  literature ”, Wolffheim Catalogue II/1929, 423, in spaced type] etc.) Vienna, Haslinger, (1832, prescripted by 1214 subscribers!). Appendix pp. 3-13;

(Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried.) Biographische Notitzen. Complete reproduction of the manuscript with transcription. Bonn, Niemeyer, 1990 (= no. 13,097, token fee EUR 15. (c. US$ 21.).

Literature

Nohl, Beethoven nach den Schilderungen seiner Zeitgenossen, 1877, pp. 25, 38-43, 182 f.; Kerst, Die Erinnerungen an Beethoven, 1913, per 15 passages according to the index; Bettina von Seyfried, Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried, 1983/1990 (still not knowing the manuskript here); Honegger-Massenkeil VII (1982, revised 1987), 346; Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart XII, 603 f.; Sadie, New Grave Dict. of Music and Musicians, 1980, XVII, 208 f.; ADB XXXIV, 113 ff., and, Beethoven, II, 251 ff.; Wurzbach XXXIV, 176 ff.; Prietznigg, Mitteilungen aus Wien – Zeitgemälde, 1835 (more comprehensive presentation of Seyfried together with catalogue of works); Bauer, Ignaz Ritter v. Seyfried. Kurze Lebensgeschichte. C. 1950 (typoscript in Institute for Musicology, Vienna, according to B. v. Seyfried, as Prietznigg, too); Rolland, L. v. Beethoven, 1918, + Beethoven the Creator, 1929.

Authenticity

The autograph manuscript has been laid before the musicologist Bettina von Seyfried (see literature). She has no doubt on the authenticity, though the quality of the writing were not as careful as accustomed of other autographs by Seyfried. The opinion here is, that this may be an expression of his deep emotion corresponding with the content as comparatively known from Grillparzer who already worked on the funeral oration when the master’s death became certain to him. “At this moment it did a strong fall in my inside … and like it happened to me at other works if real emotion overcame me: I could not complete the oration in the same pithiness in which it was started” (Kerst, op. cit., vol. II, p. 249; from the view of today just this unpithy ending of greatest beauty). But surely conditionally on his health and economical difficulties, too, overshadowing his last fifteen years.

The years 1827-1829 were marked by incurable stomach cancer in its initial state; Seyfried prepared himself for an early death. Additionally in 1831 the plague caused considerable financial losses as many of his pupils left the town. With the result important here “Thus I started to elaborate the beginning for Beethoven’s Studies,

namely  the  biographical  notes  …

just the way as the work was published during this year’s (1832) Easter fair” (Seyfried in his autobiography, quoted from B. v. S., page 33, footnote 183, as also the notes on the circumstances have been taken from B. v. S., pp. 32 ff.). The text itself would suggest as earliest day of writing March 2^nd, 1830, as the dying day of Prince Rasumowski’s chamber virtuoso Ignaz Schuppanzigh, with Franz Weiß already deceased February 25^th ( “ ‘Thus had been!’ since unfortunately already the first two leaves of that wonderful leaf of trefoil have fallen off!” ).

The manuscript ranks as

second  to  the  earliest  biography  on  Beethoven ,

after that also only short one of 1827 by Johann Aloys Schlosser, active in Freiburg/Breisgau, since 1828 on his own as book/art seller + publisher in Augsburg, as a merely outsider and also-musicologist (L. v. B. Eine Biographie desselben … Hrsg. zur Erwirkung eines Monumentes für dessen Lehrer Joseph Haydn; Cooper 1996: “… has long intrigued scholars, and many have pointed out the flaws in Schlosser’s ‘Biography’”).

And far before the “Biographische Notizen” by Wegeler-Ries (1838) following in the title. The first anyway out of question for the Vienna time while Ries, pupil of 1801/05, could not be eye/earwitness for such important incidents as the pianistic fights with Wölfl yet and the Leonore/Fidelio distaster anymore resp.

And accordingly even more ahead of the biography by Schindler (1840) who still was a child in those early years and was accepted only reluctantly by Beethoven at first – thus 1814 as the earliest – and is witness just for the last eight years.

The  ranking  of  Seyfried’s  record  thus  matchless  as documented for the time from 1853 till 2008 as following.

 

This approval and esteem resounding in unison through the times thus cannot be dirtied by the single dissonance currently released by the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. From there

An opinion intelligable here only in connection with the re-appearance of the manuscript in 1987 under the aspect  –  see  then  per  2007 + 2008, too  –  that it got to Bonn, but into other hands there. Because its missing in literature up to Bettina von Seyfried’s great dissertation-investigation of 1983 – at least in view of this the level of knowledge was not updated for the typoscript edition of 1990 –

First in the usual sense as, so for once Schletterer in the ADB in 1892,

“ S(eyfried’s) complete musical bequest passed into the possession of his disciple Binder, conductor at the Josephstädter Theater … Since he also died without heirs in 1860 it must be suspected that

Seyfried’s  after  all  very  valuable  manuscripts

may have been frittered away. ”

And else as, so Sadie from newer view, much seems to have come back into firm possession:

The latter throwing a glare on their present rareness. As then following the course of things autographic Beethoveniana in general become rarer and rarer and therewith more and more precious on the market. While their important inventory of the Louis Koch collection, e.g., in the 1950s changed for the present still into the private Bodmer collection, so at once together with this to the Beethoven House in Bonn. By which almost 800 (sic!) autographs, original editions, and letter documents definitely get lost for the market like a beat of the drum, unattainable for new collector’s desire in present and future.

Eventful at least on quite a different level as in a spectacular case – see below – deviating from the printed version. And thus in the case here it should be a marginal aspect only that in

 

Written in brown pen and ink on uncut laid paper with figurative + typographic watermarks and almost fluently readable – transcription nevertheless attached – the manuscript is

complete  in  itself .

The sheets numbered I. to IV. (I-III of 4 half-page columns each, IV as half leaf written on one side only) and starting with – according to his own statement –

“ Ludwig van Beethoven saw the light of the world in Bonn on December 16^th in 1772 … ” (corrected in print to Dec. 17, 1770, observing the rearrangement of the sentence in the manuscript),

concluding with

“ How the art enthusiastic Vienna honoured Beethoven’s remembrance is notoriuosly known; also Prague, Berlin, Breslau, even most towns of Germany rivaled to give the departed the last tribute, and still celebrate his dying day yearly in the most solemn way … This (the tomb) has been concluded within a year’s time and was inaugurated solemnly. / It consists. (Following space, then)

On the funeral itself an essay whose authenticity is proven by all eyewitnesses and which shall be, printed word by word, the conclusion of this biographic sketch.

(Following on the half-leaf)

/: Now is inserted the preliminary report on the ‘Miserere’.:/ (Following again space, then)

Annex.

I. Address, written by Grillparzer, and given on the Währinger graveyard   by the Imperial-Royal Court Actor ” (Anschütz, but breaking off before   for the end of the page).

In print the above reference to the effected inauguration of the tomb is followed by 6 lines on Franz Kirchlehner from Nußdorf near Vienna who covered the deficiency for the tomb stone. – The essay on the funeral determined to be “the conclusion” in print under its own title. Instead of this the print contains 7 lines about having been (not) married and build while the manuscript continues as quoted “(Now is inserted the preliminary report …)”, probably the genesis of especially Seyfried’s contribution, rendered only as part of “Leichenbegängnis”.

Otherwise the manuscript is richly honeycombed with all those

much  demanded  fascinating  proofs  of  manuscripts

as strike-throughs, changings, and rearrangements within the text itself, and, isolated and also by another hand and in pencil, too, on the half pages intentionally kept free for this purpose, which mostly are corrected in print accordingly. Among the highlights the manuscript is interspersed with not less before and ahead

regarding that generous gift of 100 pound Sterling from

the  London  Philharmonic  Society

moving Beethoven on his deathbed beyond words as he believed to be impoverished.

March 14^th, 1827, twelve days before his death, Beethoven had written to his friend Moscheles :

“ … Truly, a very harsh fate has met me! But I resign to the findings of fate and only ask the Lord to direct his divine decree in a way that as long as I have to endure death in life I am kept from penury. This would give me enough strength to endure my fate in submission to the will of God as hard and horrible it ever might be.

Thus my dear Moscheles I recommend my cause to you again … ” .

On this literature states :

“ Beethoven … had asked both the Philharmonic Society in London and Moscheles who was in England then to arrange a concert on his behalf. The Society was generous enough to send 100 (Pound Sterling) immediately what moved Beethoven deeply. His friend Rau tells:

‘ It was heart-rending to see him, folding his hands,
being all tears of joy and gratefulness. ’

“ Caused by his joyful emotion one of his wounds opened during the night. He intended to dictate a letter to the ‘magnanimous Englishmen’ participating at his sad fate. He promised a work to the Philharmonic Society, his thenth symphony, an overture, or what else they might wish.

‘ I commit myself to extend my warmest thanks to the Society …
May  heaven give me back my health quite soon. ’

This letter is dated March 18^th, 1827, March 26^th he passed away ”

(Rolland 1918, pp. 128 ff.). – Correspondingly Beethoven to Moscheles again :

“ With what emotion I read your letter of the 1^st March is not to be described in words.

This  magnaminity  of  the  Philharmonic  Society ,

with which they anticipated my request, has touched my inmost heart … [Tell these worthy men that, if God restores me to health, I shall try practically to show my gratitude by works … A whole sketched symphony (the 10^th) is in my desk, also a new Overture … In short, I shall try to fulfill any wish expressed by the Society, and never have I undertaken a work with such ardour as will now be displayed. May it only please God to restore me soon again to health, and then

I  shall  prove  to  these  magnanimous  Englishmen

that  I  know  how  to  value  their  sympathy  me  in  my  sad  condition .]

… Your noble attitude I shall never forget, and I shall soon render my thanks in particular to Sir Smart (Sir George S., London publisher) and Herr Stumpff (see below) … ”

(Kalischer 1218). – This letter dates of March 18, 1827, at the 26^th he died.

And in this sense then also Schindler in his report of April 12, 1827 to the publisher Schott Sons in Mayence who on his part had forwarded a generous lot of 20 years old Rüdesheimer for which the master had asked him at medical advice, “on the last hours of life of the gigantic Van Beethoven” (CÄCILIA VI, pp. 309-312) :

“ He then, once again, begged me not to forget Schott, also again to write in his name to the Philharmonic Society to thank them for their great gift, and to add that the Society had comforted his last days, and that even on the brink of the grave he thanked the Society

and  the  whole  English  nation  for  the  great  gift .

God bless them … ”

(Kalischer 1220).

With his request for conciliatory assistance on 8^th February Beethoven had appealed to Stumpff (the harp manufacturer J. A. St., who only a short time ago had hugely delighted the master with “the great luxury edition of Händel’s works”, here by Kalischer erroneously addressed with Max St.; compare index and note to 1034) and on 22^nd February to Sir Smart and friend Moscheles, all London. His follow-up letter to the latter of 14^th  March had crossed with the fair reply letter of the first of March 1 in which are found sentences as

“ How much the information had frightened myself and penetrated with pains … I cannot express by words! … in spirit often I stand in the room at the bed of the patient and ask the doctor so frankly, so uneasily … and would likely wring from him, that the disease not critical and that the patient would be soon cured completely! … could hot heartfelt wishes of a friend effect the recovery, so the hearts of your admirers would soon rise on the surge of a symphony of thanks gushing from your breast to that who only all can help …

In conformity with your wish and without the slightest delay I won Messrs. G. Smart and Moscheles for the good cause, I also acquainted the directors of the Philhharmonic Society with the matter, whereupon it was at once resolved

to  hand  over  for  the  present  ( sic! )
a  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds

to Baron Rothschild here, with a request that it should be forwarded by the first post to the Rothschild in Vienna … ”

(Kalischer 1200). – Hereto Seyfried reports

only  in  the  manuscript  here ,

thus not before in “Caecilia” in 1828, too, that Stefan von Breuning as old friend and executor of Beethoven’s will, himself dying only a few months later (June 4, 1827), had returned this gift :

“ The whole estate by the way amounted to 20000 fl. – in print specified as 9000 fl. Conv. silver coins plus 125 St. Duc. outstanding debts – by what the rumour Beethoven was near to suffer penury is refuted.

For  this  reason  the  aid  of  (not  mentioned  100)  Pound  Sterling
generously  sent  from  England
has  been  returned  with  thanks
by  the  executor  Mr.  Privy  Councillor  von  Breuning. ”

This

England-statement  of  most  beautiful  content

connected to

one  of  the  most  moving  moments  in  the  life  of  Beethoven ,

even not changed in the manuscript,

is  missing  in  print .

As equally fascinating research and the general public furthermore highlighted

–  also  for  the  first  time  –

the report on Beethoven’s legendary capabilities to improvise, concerning literature until today. Correspondingly generations later von Dommer recapitulated in ADB:

“ Especially the breath-taking power of his improvisations hardly anyone could resist as

reports  from  his  biographies  state . ”

And yet in our time Reclam’s Konzertführer states :

About this Seyfried’s own memory ( Nohl :

thus also at the soirées in the house of Baron von Wetzlar (Raymund von W., protector of Mozart to whose “truly good friends” the “rich baptized Jew” – so Mozart in the letter to his father of November 24, 1781 – belonged and who had given along Wölfl, too, best recommendations), where Beethoven and Joseph Wölfl (Salzburg 1772 – 1812 or 1814 near London, “pianist of most extraordinary kind”, ADB; Beethoven dedicated his 1796 piano sonata, The “loving” Sonata, op. 7, to him) rivaled with each other, expressly carried as event sui generis in Kerst’s periodical list

“ 1798. Piano  match  with  the  virtuoso  Wölffl .”:

“ There the most interesting competition of both athlets not rarely provided the numerous though selected gathering an indescribable artistic treat; both presented their newest inventions; now the one or the other left his instantanious ideas of his glowing fantasy running freely; then both took place at two pianos. Improvised mutually on themes given each other, and thus produced a lot of four-handed cappricci that, if written down in the moment of birth, would have resisted transitoriness. –

“ It would have been difficult if not impossible to present one of the fighters the palm for his technical skills; indeed, nature had provided Wölfl even better for giving him a giant’s hand that spanned decimen as easily as other humans octaves, and enabled him to continously play double-stop passages of the mentioned intervals in lightning speed. –

“ Even then Beethoven revealed in improvising his character inclining more to the sinister dark; when revelling in the immeasurable realm of the tones, then he was also wrenched from earthly things; his spirit had broken all fetters, shaken off the yoke of slavery, and flew triumphantly jubilating up into the light ether; now his play roared like a wild foaming cataract, and sometimes the conjuror forced the instrument to an effort that even the strongest construction was almost unable to obey; then he sank back, exhausted, exhaling faint complaints, melting in melancholy, – again the scale raised, triumphing over passing earthly misery, turned up in devotional sounds … But, who can fathom the ocean’s deepness? It talks in a mysterious language whose cryptic hieroglyphs only the insider is allowed to solve! –

“ Wölfl, on the other hand, educated in Mozart’s school was always the same; never shallow, but always clear, and just by this more accessible for the majority; art was just a means to an end, … always he knew to attract interest, and to captivate this to the flow of his well-ordered ideas. – & Who has heard Hummel (Johann Nepomuk H., 1778-1837) will understand what shall be said by this. –

“ Another quite unique pleasure grew to the unprejudiced and impartial viewer in quietly reflecting both the Maecenas (Prince Lichnowsky on Beethoven’s, Baron von Wetzlar on Wölfl’s side). As they followed in close attentiveness the performance of their protégés, giving each other applauding looks … ”

Who otherwise and beforehand remarks on this:

“ But the main field of honour of the ingenious art disciple was the free improvisation and the ability to work a given theme and perform it thematically; in which as Gerber (Lexikon der Tonkünstler, 1812/14) … tells he gave a highly honourable probe extempore before the scholared composer Junker at Cologne. ”

The  source  of  a  directly  involved  one

– also in regard of physiognomical observations not mentioned in “Biographische Notitzen” Seyfried served as such – he is, too, for the disastrous first performances of Fidelio on which he reports in the “Biographische Notitzen” here.

“ The Fidelio now come to European fame got on stage then under a in no way lucky constellation … Also for the Prague stage B. projected a new, less difficult overture … In the course of the following years the directors of the Kärntnerthor Theatre chose … this opera as their benefit performance. It now received its present form, was divided into 2 acts, and provided with the imposing overture in E major. But even this was not written down completely on the first evening (May 23, 1814) and had to be supplemented temporarily by that for the Ruins of Athens. ”

 

THUS  INTO  THIS  MOST  EXTRAORDINARY  CREATIVE  PERIOD

– for which von Dommer in the ADB sees the period from 1800 till 1812/13 while Rolland stays closer to the master himself :

“ The Eroica and the Appassionata were in Beethoven’s eyes the culminating peaks of his genius. Speaking generally, the works of this period of three years (1803-1806) remain his favourites until near his death … Among these privileged works Leonore occupies a special position. He placed it on the same height as the others, and he loved it more because it had suffered more … It is one of the Great Days of music. It inaugurates an era ” (Beethoven the Creator, 1929, pp. 207 + 101) –

which is sketched in the “Biographische Notitzen” here.

“ Mainly to this period the close ties of friendship with the editor of these pages date. We lived under the same roof, were daily companions at the table … All what his never resting genius created in the limited period of two years (note: partly in first attempts) – the wonderful Leonore, the oratorio: Christ at the Mount of Olives, the concerto for violin, the symphony Eroica, and Pastorale, just as that in C minor, the concertos for piano in G, E flat, and C minor which he all (thus in a greater period than the mentioned two years) composed for several academies staged for his benefit, and

“ produced with the quite good orchestra under my direction, –

all these guarantors of immortality I was so lucky to admire first. ”

To the painstaking evolution of all of them the name of von Seyfried is tied forever. One has to bear this in mind when approaching the spiritual – and thus material – estimation of this autograph manuscript.

Correspondingly then also Felix von Weingartner in recollection of a conversation with the gray soprano Grebner as performer of the 1824 first night of the Ninth, its score Seyfried by the way had reviewed appreciatively as one of the first in 1828 (see Nef, Die neun Sinfonien Beethovens, 1928, pp. 264 + 308) :

“ It was touching … and to look in her eye at the same time which had seen the greatest composer still in the flesh ”

(quoted by Kerst, op. cit., II, pp. 81 f.).

What rank Seyfried held at his time is proven by the 1700 performances of his own works placing him “ahead of all by far, followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with 400”. Nevertheless in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 100 years ago Schletterer saw his lasting compositional achievement in his religious compositions, concluding with the words:

Corresponding to this the number (92) of his pupils from up to Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Milan, and partly on highest recommendations, gathered arround him since 1803 though mainly only after 1825.

His burial accordingly “with an immense crush of all classes”. And the “Österreichische Morgenblatt” of Sep. 1^st, 1841, classified him

After studying philosophy and law he got his piano lessons by W. A. Mozart and L. Kozeluch while Joh. Gg. Albrechtsberger (1736-1809), the famous theorist and teacher of Beethoven, too, court organist and conductor at the Stephansdom, instructed him in composition, as did his friend P. von Winter, too. 1797 he was conductor at the Freihaus Theatre of E. Schikaneder, then, until 1825, at the Theater an der Wien.

“ Since 1803 (Nohl: 1800, Thayer 1802-1805) he had been on friendly terms with Beethoven (‘belonging to his warmest admirers’, ADB) and

conducted  in  1805  ( recte 1806 )

both  performances  of  the  second  version  of  ‘Fidelio’ ”

(Honegger-Massenkeil).

On the assumed conducting as a whole, or in parts only (Kinsky-Halm: Leonoren overture III) including the first performance and both the two repetitions in 1805 literature is parted. The contemporary critiques are as little productive as the memoirs of contemporaries. And Bettina von Seyfried exercises greatest familiar restraint, referring only to Seyfried himself and his note in “Caecilia”(1828, p. 219) :

“ The symphonies and concerts (Beethoven) first produced for his benefit at the Theater an der Wien (where S. was conductor for 30 years), the oratorio,  and  the  opera, I rehearsed, according to his instructions, with the singers, held all auditions with the orchestra, and personally conducted the performances. ”

Correspondingly  then  Beethoven  himself

by letter of April 1806 to the friendly Pizarro-singer Friedrich Sebastian Mayer (also Meier, 1773-1835, brother-in-law of Mozart) :

“ Please request Herr v. Seyfried

to  conduct  my  opera  to-day ;

I myself want to-day to see and hear it at a distance … ”

(Kalischer 105).

Secured finally, that he wrote the choral music for the requiem which became his own, too. “After the holy consecration his corps was lead on a four-in-hand carriage in a torchlight procession … to the new Währinger cemetary” (B. v. S., p. 36).

Thus this is the man we owe to this

The writing of which mirroring at least partly the personal affection wielding the pen. Striking chords by this as only an autograph manuscript can strike. Since

( Stefan Zweig ) .

As musical writer – Wurzbach wrote – “he published mostly anonymously …

“ In all these … articles are a real treasure of appropriate remarks and judgements thoroughly grasping the subject, further laid down reliable contributions in biographies. ”

And von Dommer rates especially this one as one of those

“ works published not long after (Beethoven’s) death by persons who had known him yet and had been close to him … as references of contemporaries … (of which) one … could put together his character most clearly. ”

And since besides Seyfried’s report in “Caecilia” there is almost no biographical press material, not even Grillparzer’s funeral oration contains anything in this direction – the necrologies of the “Leipziger musikalische Zeitung” of March 28 and the “Berliner Nachrichten” of April 5, 1827, fill just 1½ and 2½ pp. resp. in Seyfried’s appendix of 1832 – Seyfried’s record, quite extensive for “Notes”, has the precedence of an authenticity based on “friendly relations for more than three decades” as not known of Schlaffer. Supported additionally by a “Brothership in Apoll”

(so Beethoven 1822 in the fall [?] to Seyfried :

“ My  Dear  worthy  Brother  in  Apollo!

Hearty thanks for the trouble you have taken about my human work, and I rejoice that its success has become generally acknowledged; I hope that you never will pass me over when I am in a position to serve you with my modest powers. The worshipful Committee of Burgers is already sufficiently convinced of my good-will; in order to confirm this to them, we will again have a friendly talk about the way in which they may best be served. If a master like yourself sympathises with us, things ought never to go badly.

With hearty esteem, your friend,

Beethoven. ”

[Kalischer 849 with the annotation “It was in 1822 when Beethoven, at the end of September, produced his great fugued Overture in C at the inauguration Josephstadt theatre. At a concert for the hospital funds this work, under the direction of Seyfried, was performed to the great satisfaction of the composer.”] )

as the base of the older friendship, the mutual work, and the house community during, it may be repeated,

“ one  of  the  Great  Days  of  music ”

as among the biographers qualifying Seyfried exclusively whose good and hearty relation to Beethoven “emerges indeed from (his) letters” (Nohl). All this thus

the  duplicatable  criterions

of the manuscript here, concerning

the  experienced  biography

of a life about which is written 165 years after its end :

“ From the day he died, Beethoven has been immortal. Other composers – Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner, Mahler – took years and years to achieve similar status … ‘No living man (so Grillparzer’s funeral oration, see above) enters the halls of immortality. The body must die before the doors are opened. He whom you mourn is now among the greatest men of all time. Unassailable forever’ … for it is a reminder that in Beethoven’s genius there was indeed ‘the surest promise of immortality’. Is Mozart similarly blessed? Is Bach or Schubert, or any of the other composers whose music we continually celebrate and to whom posterity has awarded the worth of greatness? The answer, I think, is no. At least, I don’t believe that Mozart and all are immortal in the same way that Beethoven is … And (so) it is no wonder that Beethoven’s exalted position has never been seriously threatened … it seems that many of the ideas born of that spirit took permanent hold in Western Culture … Beethoven was of his time, but he is also of our time, more so than any of his mates in the Great Composer’s Hall of Fame. Eighteen years after his death he was memorialized in Bonn, 165 years after his death he is being memorialized in St. Louis, probably for the same reasons ”

(James Wierzbicki, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 13, 1992).

And for one of the most moving moments in the life of this immortal then

in the manuscript. In connection with a truly splendid and noble gesture. That by the London Philharmonic Society. Which “the dying (had called on) for help over land and sea” (Stefan Zweig, Sinn und Schönheit der Autographen).

In autograph manuscript here by a man who himself got the obituary:

(August Schmidt in 1841 in the necrology stretching over three issues of the “Allgemeine Wiener Musikzeitung”, then again, with only minor changes, in 1848 in his “Denksteine”, quoted after B. v. Seyfried).

 

THE  CONDITION

generally very good, only first + last page slightly browned, small center fold repairs and two ink break-throughs. Adequately, too,

 

Worthy  its  high  quality  as  a  unique  document

(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Offer no. 15,049  /  price on request

 

Last updated February 3, 2010.

---

“ Thank you Mr. Niemeyer – I will take it! … It should look very nice in my new office. Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., January 6, 2006)

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