[K.]

[Footnote 1:  The letters 272, 273, 274, relate to arrangements for musical meetings at which Beethoven caused his new works to be played for the Archduke.]

273.

TO THE ARCHDUKE RUDOLPH.

1819.

I beg you will be so kind as to let Herr von Wranitzky[1] know your commands about the music, and whether to bespeak two or four horns.  I have already spoken with him, and suggested his only selecting musicians who can accomplish a performance, rather than a mere rehearsal.

[K.]

[Footnote 1:  Anton Wranitzky (born 1760, died 1819), director of Prince Lobkowitz’s opera and band.  His brother Paul (born 1756, died 1808) was from 1785 to 1808 Kapellmeister at the Royal Opera in Vienna.]

274.

TO THE ARCHDUKE RUDOLPH.

1819.

It is impossible to double the parts by eleven o’clock to-morrow, most of the copyists having so much to write this week.  I think therefore you will perhaps appoint next Saturday for our resurrection day, and by that time I expect to be entirely recovered, and better able to conduct, which would have been rather an arduous task for me to-morrow, in spite of my good-will.  On Friday I do hope to be able to go out and inquire for Y.R.H.

[K.]

275.

TO THE ARCHDUKE RUDOLPH.

1819.

(A Fragment.)

The day when a High Mass of mine is performed in honor of the solemnities for Y.R.H. will be the most delightful of my life, and God will enlighten me so that my poor abilities may contribute to the splendors of that solemn occasion.  I send you the Sonata with heartfelt gratitude; I think the violoncello part is wanting,—­at least I could not lay my hand on it at the moment.  As the work is beautifully engraved, I have taken the liberty to add a published copy, and also a violin quintet.  In addition to the two pieces written in my hand on Y.R.H.’s name-day, there are two more; the last a grand Fugato, so that it forms one great sonata,[1] which is now shortly to appear, and has been long in my heart dedicated to Y.R.H. The recent occurrence connected with Y.R.H.[2] is not in the slightest degree the cause of this. I beg you will forgive my bad writing.  I implore the Lord to bestow His richest blessings on Y.R.H., whose love of humanity is so comprehensive,—­one of the choicest of all qualities; and in this respect Y.R.H. will always, either in a worldly or spiritual point of view, be one of our brightest examples.

[K.]

[Footnote 1:  The Grand Sonata with two movements, and two additional ones, of which the last is a grand fugued one, can scarcely be any other than the pianoforte Sonata (Op. 106) composed in 1818, dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, and published in September, 1819.]

[Footnote 2:  The “recent occurrence” to which Beethoven alludes is no doubt his being appointed Archbishop.]