Karl Kaspar a Probable Scapegoat
And more like this, illustrated by copying “Das Blümchen Wunderhold.” These citations suggest an obvious explanation of Ries’s mistake, namely: Beethoven, mortified, ashamed, angry, purposely left him to believe that he was innocent of the publication of these compositions. It was one of the advantages of having Kaspar in Vienna, that the responsibility of such false steps could be shifted upon him. Those who are predetermined not to admit in Beethoven’s character any of the faults, frailties and shortcomings of our common human nature, will of course censure this explanation. Let them propose a better.[136] Finally: In the paragraph upon the efforts of Beethoven’s brothers to keep all of the composer’s friends away from him it is easy to read between the lines that it was Ries himself who oft “was rebuked for his good-nature and frankness,” which of itself to some extent lessens the force of the charge. But it is best met by the first half of the Will, or testament, which, with the confessions to Wegeler and Amenda, as above said, open to our knowledge an inner life of the writer studiously concealed from his protégé.
In this solemn document, written as he supposed upon the brink of the grave, Beethoven touches upon this very question. We learn from his own affecting words, that the cause of his separation from friends lay, not in the machinations of his brothers, but in his own sensitiveness. He records for future use, what he cannot now explain without disclosing his jealously guarded secret. That record now serves a double purpose; it relieves Kaspar and Johann from a portion of the odium so long cast upon their memories; and proves Ries to be, in part at least, in error, without impugning his veracity. It is very probable Ries never saw the will. Had he known and carefully read it, the prejudices of his youth must have been weakened, the opinions founded upon partial knowledge modified. He was of too noble a nature not to have gladly seen the memories of the dead vindicated—not to have been struck with and affected by the words of his deceased master: “To you, brother Carl, I give special thanks for the attachment you have displayed towards me of late.”
Pass we to another topic.
On frequent occasions (says Ries), he showed a truly paternal interest in me. From this source there sprang the written order (in 1802), which he sent me in a fit of anger because of an unpleasant predicament into which Carl van Beethoven had gotten me. Beethoven wrote: “You do not need to come to Heiligenstadt; I have no time to lose.” At the time Count Browne was indulging himself with pleasures in which I was taking part, he being kindly disposed towards me, and was in consequence neglecting my lessons.
That Beethoven, during the summer when his vocations were interrupted by the dark hours in which the “will” was produced, could have no time to lose in those lighter days when the spirit of labor was upon him is clear from the surprising list of compositions written and published in this year.
Compositions Completed in 1802
The works which were developed were the three Violin Sonatas, Op. 30; the first two of the three Pianoforte Sonatas, Op. 31; the two sets of Variations, Op. 34 and 35; the “Bagatelles,” Op. 33, and (the chief work of the year) the second Symphony, D major, Op. 36. The works which came from the press were the Pianoforte Sonatas, Op. 22, 26 and 27, Nos. 1 and 2; the Serenade, Op. 25; the Septet, Op. 20; the Quintet, Op. 29; the Rondo in G, Op. 51, No. 2; the transcription for strings of the Pianoforte Sonata in E, Op. 14, No. 1; the Variations for Violoncello and Pianoforte on “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen,” dedicated to Count Browne; the six Contradances and six Rustic (“Ländrische”) Dances. There were thirteen performances of the ballet “Prometheus.” Moreover, it is at least remotely possible that the two large works which were played together with the Symphonies in C and D at Beethoven’s concert on April 5, 1803—viz.: the Pianoforte Concerto in C minor, Op. 37 and the Oratorio “Christus am Ölberg,” Op. 85—were not so far advanced in all their parts that they, too, may have occupied the attention of Beethoven in the winter of 1802-03.
For nearly all the works completed in 1802, studies are to be found in the sketchbook described in full by Nottebohm,[137] which covers the period from the fall of 1801 to the spring of 1802; like the majority of the sketchbooks, it contains themes and studies which were never worked out. “Overlooking the sketches which cross each other,” says Nottebohm, “and putting aside all that is immaterial, the compositions represented in the book which were completed and are known, may be set down chronologically as follows: