Beethoven Anecdotes

[Megan]

Beethoven related anecdote.


1st. Duke of Wellington.

At Vienna Wellington was compelled to sit through a performance of Beethoven's "Battle of Victoria" (or, "Wellington's Victory"). Afterward, a Russian envoy asked him if the music had been anything like the real thing. "By God, no," said the duke. "If it had been like that I'd have run away myself."

[Preston]

From Gerhard's book:

His withdrawal from the outer world sometime showed itself in extreme forms of behavior.

For example, he would, without giving it a second thought, take off practically all his clothes and carry them tied to his stick over his shoulder, when the summer heat got to be too much for him during his walk in lonely woods.

He did this particularly in his favorite woods between Baden and Gaden; so that my father several times voiced his fears that there might be unpleasant incidents if he happened to encounter other people.

[Preston]

This comes from "Beethoven: His Life and Music", by Jerry Siepmann.

The author writes:

Even at his most benign, Beethoven could be a demanding friend. At one point, Seyfried tells us, he elected to solve his servant problems by demonstrating, to himself as much as to anyone else, how little he needed them:

Seyfried writes:

He suddenly decided to be quite independent, and this fantastic idea, like every other which took firm root in his mind, he proceeded at once to realize. He visited the market in person, chose, haggled over, and bought his own provisions, and undertook to prepare his own meals. This he continued to do for some little time, and when the few friends whom he still suffered about him made the most serious representations to him, he became quite angry and, as a valid proof of his own notable knowledge of the noble art of cooking, invited them to eat dinner with him the following day. There was nothing left for those invited but to appear punctually, full of expectation as to what would happen. They found their host in a short evening jacket, a stately nightcap on his bristly shock of hair, and his loins girded with a blue kitchen apron, very busily engaged at the stove. After waiting patiently for an hour and a half, while the turbulent demands of their stomachs were assuaged with increasing difficulty by cordial dialog, the dinner was finally served. The soup recalled those charitable leavings distributed to beggars in the taverns; the beef was but half done and calculated to gratify only an ostrich; the vegetables floated in a mixture of water and grease; and the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney. Nevertheless the giver of the feast himself did full justice to every dish.

[Roehre]

Browsing through the Konversationshefte I came across the following:

Beethoven and Oliva (1786-1848, friend of B's, bookkeeper, emigrated to Russia in december 1820) are looking in Mödling and Döbling for a place to live during the summer of 1818. There are lengthy discussions about the rent (which B considered to be expensive), about which rooms B could have and from when to when, whether the maid was included in the rent etc.etc.etc., as B seems to smell something.

[Beethoven] ........
[Oliva] Es brennt hier in der Nähe (there is a fire nearby)
[Beethoven] Es stinkt (it stinks)

And with these words the discussion and the negotiation ended.

Beethoven nearly exclusively used to write something into his conversationbooklets if he didn't want to be overheard. Obviously that was exactly what was happening here
[Konversationsheft no.1, Februari-March 1818, Beethoven-Archiv Bonn, fol.47v-48r]

[Peter]

Browsing through the Konversationshefte I came across the following:

Beethoven and Oliva (1786-1848, friend of B's, bookkeeper, emigrated to Russia in december 1820) are looking in Mödling and Döbling for a place to live during the summer of 1818. there are lengthy discussion about the rent (which B considered to be expensive), about which rooms B could have and from when to when, whether the maid was included in the rent etc.etc.etc., as B seems to smell something.

[Beethoven] ........
[Oliva] Es brennt hier in der Nähe (there is a fire nearby)
[Beethoven] Es stinkt (it stinks)

And with these words the discussion and the negotiation ended.

Beethoven nearly exclusively used to write something into his conversationbooklets if he didn't want to be overheard. Obviously that was exactly what was happening here
[Konversationsheft no.1, Februari-March 1818, Beethoven-Archiv Bonn, fol.47v-48r]

You're very fortunate in speaking German and thus having access to the conversation books - when oh when will we get a translation?

[Bonn1827]

Roehre, if one wanted to examine the Konversationsheft where would you find them? I'm busy learning Deutsch as we speak in preparation for my visit in 2011.

[Tillyvalle]

My favourite story is about how Archduke Rudolph decreed that the rules of court decorum did not apply to Beethoven!

[Preston]

Welcome to the forums Tillyvalle.

I like the avatar you chose. I have thought of making that exact portrait my avatar in the past.

[Tillyvalle]

Thank you, I'm still learning and this looks like a good place! The portrait is my absolute favourite. Somehow I believe it's how the Maestro really looked.

[Bonn1827]

Tillyvalle, it's great to meet yet another Beethoven lover!! Loved your anedcote about Archduke Rudolph. Welcome.

[Tillyvalle]

Thanks, it's good to be here! Hoping to learn loads about the Maestro from you all.

[Quijote]

Regarding Tillyvalle's avatar, can anyone give the background to this portrait? Tillyvalle, can you, please? By the way, I have to agree that there is "something" in it that makes me think this is how the guy looked.

[Preston]

Philip, here is my thread about this very painting. It has more information on the painting in it.

http://www.gyrix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3340

[Quijote]

Hey, long time no speak, Preston. Thanks for the link. How are you doing these days?

[Preston]

Hey, long time no speak, Preston. Thanks for the link. How are you doing these days?

You are welcome.

Unfortunately, the same as always, not that great.