Before proceeding with this history a correction must be made in this report: the music to the “Ritterballet,” which was the characteristic ballet referred to, was not composed by Count Waldstein but by Ludwig van Beethoven. We shall recur to it presently. Owing to a long-continued absence of the Elector, the principal singers and the greater part of the orchestra, the fourth season did not begin till the 28th of December, 1791. Between that date and February 20, 1792, the following musical works were performed: “Doktor und Apotheker,” Dittersdorf; “Robert und Caliste,” Guglielmi; “Félix,” Monsigny; “Die Dorfdeputirten,” Schubauer; “Im Trüben ist gut Fischen” (Fra due Litiganti, il Terzo gode), Sarti; “Das rothe Käppchen,” Dittersdorf; “Lilla,” Martini; “Der Barbier von Sevilla,” Paisiello; “Ende gut, Alles gut,” music by the Electoral Captain d’Antoin; “Die Entführung aus dem Serail,” Mozart; “Die beiden Savoyarden” (Les deux petits Savoyards), Dalayrac.
Operas at Bonn in 1792
The fifth season began in October, 1792. Of the nine operas given before the departure of Maximilian and the company to Münster in December, “Die Müllerin” by De la Borde, “König Axur in Ormus” by Salieri, and “Hieronymus Knicker” by Dittersdorf, were the only ones new to Bonn; and in only the first two of these could Beethoven have taken part, unless at rehearsals; for at the beginning of November he left Bonn—and, as it proved, forever. Probably Salieri’s masterpiece was his last opera within the familiar walls of the Court Theatre of the Elector of Cologne.
Beethoven’s eighteenth birthday came around during the rehearsals for the first season, of this theatre; his twenty-second just after the beginning of the fifth. During four years (1788-1792) he was adding to his musical knowledge and experience in a direction wherein he has usually been represented as deficient—as active member of an operatic orchestra; and the catalogue of works performed shows that the best schools of the day, save that of Berlin, must have been thoroughly mastered by him in all their strength and weakness. Beethoven’s titanic power and grandeur would have marked his compositions under any circumstances; but it is very doubtful if, without the training of those years in the Electoral “Toxal, Kammer und Theater” as member of the orchestra, his works would have so abounded in melodies of such profound depths of expression, of such heavenly serenity and repose and of such divine beauty as they do, and which give him rank with the two greatest of melodists, Handel and Mozart.
Chapter IX
Gleanings of Musical Fact and Anecdote—Haydn in Bonn—A Rhine Journey—Abbé Sterkel—Beethoven Extemporises—Social and Artistic Life in Bonn—Eleonore von Breuning—The Circle of Friends—Beethoven Leaves Bonn Forever—The Journey to Vienna.
As a pendant to the preceding sketches of Bonn’s musical history a variety of notices belonging to the last three years of Beethoven’s life in his native place are here brought together in chronological order. Most of them relate to him personally, and some of them, through errors of date, have been looked upon hitherto as adding proofs of the precocity of his genius.
Prof. Dr. Wurzer communicated to the “Kölnische Zeitung” of August 30, 1838, the following pleasant anecdote:
In the summer of the year 1790 or 1791 I was one day on business in Godesberger Brunnen. After dinner Beethoven and another young man came up. I related to him that the church at Marienforst (a cloister in the woods behind Godesberg) had been repaired and renovated, and that this was also true of the organ, which was either wholly new or at least greatly improved. The company begged him to give them the pleasure of letting them hear him play on the instrument. His great good nature led him to grant our wish. The church was locked, but the prior was very obliging and had it unlocked for us. B. now began to play variations on themes given him by the party in a manner that moved us profoundly; but what was much more significant, poor laboring folk who were cleaning out the débris left by the work of repair, were so greatly affected by the music that they put down their implements and listened with obvious pleasure. Sit ei terra levis!