The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II

The desire of a large number of music-lovers whom I esteem as worthy of honor, to hear again my grand instrumental composition on “Wellington’s Victory at Vittoria,” makes it my...

Beethoven’s splenetic remarks to strangers in his last years upon the music, musicians and public of Vienna have given rise to widely diffused but utterly false conceptions as t...

Compared with the years immediately preceding, the year 1816 is comparatively barren of large incidents in the life of Beethoven; its recorded history, therefore, is to be found...

An entry in an old “Porter’s Book” of John Broadwood and Sons, manufacturers of pianofortes in London, offers an agreeable starting-point for the story of Beethoven’s life in 18...

The topics last under notice have carried us far onward, even to the last years of Beethoven. We now return to the end of 1809--to the master in the full vigor and maturity of h...

The offer of an honorable position in Cassel--permanent, so long as Napoleon’s star might remain in the ascendant and his satellite retain his nominal kingship of Westphalia--wa...

The Year 1812--Beethoven’s Finances--The Austrian “Finanzpatent”--Beethoven and Graz--Second Sojourn in Teplitz--Beethoven and Goethe--Amalie Sebald--Beethoven in Linz--Meddles...

Excerpts from a letter written on June 2, 1806, by Stephan von Breuning to his sister and brother-in-law, make a fair opening for the story of the year 1806. In it he reports on...

Short as Bettina’s stay in Vienna was, it occurred at the very crisis of Beethoven’s unlucky marriage project; and her society served a good purpose in distracting his thoughts;...

Kotzebue, after a year of activity in Vienna as Alxinger’s successor in the direction, under the banker Baron von Braun, of the Court Theatre, then a year of exile in Siberia (1...

Please be so kind as to give this to the copyist to-morrow--it concerns the symphony as you see--in case he is not through with the quartet to-morrow, take it away and deliver i...

He who dwells with wife and children in a fixed abode, usually finds himself, as age draws on, one of a small circle of old friends; and hoary heads, surrounded by their descend...

During the winter 1803-04 negotiations were in progress the result of which put an end for the present to Beethoven’s operatic aspirations. Let Treitschke, a personal actor in t...

Pyne and Mr. Bellamy; Part III, Musical selections. Parts I and II also closed with selections from “Paradise Lost” read by Miss Smith. The tenth, and last, performance was on M...

A controversy for the possession of the two Court Theatres and that An-der-Wien involved certain legal questions which, in September, 1806, were decided by the proper tribunal a...

Beethoven’s intercourse with the Brentanos kept his interest in Bettina alive and to this we owe a characteristic and welcome letter which, like the first, is here taken from th...

The life of an author or composer, when absorbed in the study of a great work, falls into a routine of daily labor that presents few salient points to the biographer. Thus it wa...

A popular conception of Beethoven’s character, namely, that a predisposition to gloom and melancholy formed its basis, appears to the present writer to be a grave mistake. The q...

Beethoven might well have adopted Kotzebue’s title: “The most Remarkable Year of my Life” and written his own history for 1814, in glowing and triumphant language; but now the t...

A Revision of the Book by von Breuning--Changes in the Opera--The “Leonore” Overtures--A Second Failure--Beethoven Withdraws the Opera from the Theatre--Marriage of Karl Kaspar...

from John Broadwood--The Composer Takes Personal Charge of His Nephew--His Unfitness as Foster-father and Guardian--Abandonment of His Projected Visit to London--The Gesellschaf...

the Annuity--The Austrian “Finanzpatent”--Legal Obligation of the Signers to the Agreement--First Performance of the Pianoforte Concerto in E-flat--A Second Visit to Teplitz--Be...

Victory”--Umlauf Rescues a Performance--Revival and Revision of “Fidelio”--Changes Made in the Opera--Success Attained--The Eighth Symphony--Beethoven Plays in the Great Trio in...

“Romulus and Remus”--Settlements with the Heirs of Prince Kinsky--Unjust Aspersions on the Conduct of Kinsky and Lobkowitz--“The Mount of Olives” in England--Negotiations with E...

of Karl Kaspar van Beethoven--He Requests the Appointment of His Brother as Guardian of His Son--Death of Prince Kinsky--Obligations under the Annuity Agreement--Beethoven’s Ear...

Collects a Debt and Buys an Apothecary Shop in Linz--Wilhelm Rust--Plans for New Operas--Sketches for “Macbeth”--Imitative Music and the “Pastoral” Symphony--Count Oppersdorff a...

Theatre and is then Dismissed from the Management-- Beethoven’s Contract Ended and Renewed by Baron Braun--The “Sinfonia Eroica”--Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia--Quarrel betw...

Beethoven Appeals for an Appointment--Vain Expectations--Subscription Concerts at Prince Lobkowitz’s-- The Symphony in B-flat--Overture to “Coriolan”--Contract with Clementi--Er...

and Rivalry between Schikaneder and the Imperial Theatres--Beethoven’s Engagement at the Theater-an-der-Wien --“Christus am Ölberg” again--Bridgetower and the “Kreutzer” Sonata-...

Concerts--First Public Performance of the “Eroica”--Pleyel--The Opera “Leonore,” or “Fidelio”; Jahn’s Study of the Sketchbook--The Singers and the Production--Vienna Abandoned b...

Plan to Keep Beethoven in Vienna--The Annuity Contract-- Ries’s Disappointment--Farewell to Archduke Rudolph in a Sonata--The Siege and Capitulation of Vienna--Seyfried’s “Studi...

Productivity--The Music for “Egmont”--Money from Clementi, and a Marriage Project--A New Infatuation Prompts Attention to Dress--Therese Malfatti--Beethoven’s Relations with Bet...

der Musikfreunde--Guardianship of Nephew Karl--Giannatasio del Rio--Beethoven’s Music in London--The Philharmonic Society--Three Overtures Composed, Bought and Discarded--Bircha...

Public Journals of Vienna--Fanny Giannatasio’s Journal-- Extracts from Beethoven’s “Tagebuch”--The London Philharmonic Society again--Propositions Submitted by Ries--Nephew Karl...