50.

TO ZMESKALL.

December, 1808.

MY EXCELLENT FRIEND,—­

All would go well now if we had only a curtain, without it the Aria ["Ah!  Perfido”] will be a failure.[1] I only heard this to-day from S. [Seyfried], and it vexes me much:  a curtain of any kind will do, even a bed-curtain, or merely a kind of gauze screen, which could be instantly removed.  There must be something; for the Aria is in the dramatic style, and better adapted for the stage than for effect in a concert-room. Without a curtain, or something of the sort, the Aria will be devoid of all meaning, and ruined! ruined! ruined!!  Devil take it all! The Court will probably be present.  Baron Schweitzer [Chamberlain of the Archduke Anton] requested me earnestly to make the application myself.  Archduke Carl granted me an audience and promised to come.  The Empress neither promised nor refused.

A hanging curtain!!!! or the Aria and I will both be hanged to-morrow.  Farewell!  I embrace you as cordially on this new year as in the old one. With or without a curtain! Your

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1:  Reichardt, in his Vertraute Briefe relates among other things about the concert given by Beethoven in the Royal Theatre “an der Wien,” Oct. 22, 1808, as follows:—­“Poor Beethoven, who derived from this concert the first and only net profits which accrued to him during the whole year, met with great opposition and very slender support in arranging and carrying it out.  First came the Pastoral Symphony; or, Reminiscences of Rural Life; then followed, as the sixth piece, a long Italian scena, sung by Demoiselle Killitzky, a lovely Bohemian with a lovely voice.”  The above note [to Zmeskall?] certainly refers to this concert.]

51.

TO FERDINAND RIES.[1]

1809.

MY DEAR FELLOW,—­

Your friends have at any rate given you very bad advice; but I know all about them:  they are the very same to whom you sent that fine news about me from Paris; the very same who inquired about my age—­information that you contrived to supply so correctly!—­the very same who have often before injured you in my opinion, but now permanently.  Farewell!

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1:  Ries himself gives the date of this note as 1809, though he cannot recall what gave rise to it.  It is probably connected with a fact mentioned by Wegeler, p. 95, that Reichardt, who was at that time in Vienna, had advised Beethoven’s young pupil, Ries, to apply to the King of Westphalia for the appointment of Kapellmeister, which he had recently given up.  This was reported to Beethoven, and roused his ire.  Ries, too, had written from Paris that the taste in music there was very indifferent; that Beethoven’s works were little known or played in that city.  Beethoven was also very susceptible with regard to his age.  At the request of some of Beethoven’s friends, Ries, in 1806, obtained Beethoven’s baptismal certificate, and sent it to Vienna.  But the maestro’s wrath on this occasion passed away as quickly as usual.]