Be assured that as an artist I cherish the best of good feeling for you and shall always strive to manifest it.
Linke’s concert took place on the 18th of February in the hall of the “Römischer Kaiser,” the programme, except a Rondoletto for the Violoncello by Romberg, being also entirely Beethoven. Stainer von Felsburg played the new Sonata, Op. 101, and Czerny the pianoforte part of one of the Sonatas, Op. 102, on which occasion the composer “made it good publicly.” And so, except for an occasional visit to Vienna by Linke, two more of our old acquaintances disappear for several years; also Hummel and Wild. Hummel we shall meet again beside Beethoven’s death-bed; Wild no more. An album-leaf containing a canon, “Ars longa, vita brevis est” and “A happy journey, my dear Hummel, think occasionally of your friend, Ludwig van Beethoven, Vienna, April 4, 1816,” was the farewell to the pianist and composer. On the 20th, Wild gave a little musical festival “in the home of an art-lover,” at which he sang the “Adelaide” and “An die Hoffnung,” Op. 94. Beethoven was present and played the accompaniments. And this was his farewell to the singer. On April 3d, Beethoven wrote the following letter to Ries:
My dear Ries:
Hr. B. has probably received the Trio and Sonata by this time, in the last letter I asked 10 ducats more for copying and postage, probably you will work out these 10 ducats for me—I always have some worriment lest you are spending a great deal for me for postage, I greatly wish that you would be so kind to charge up to me all my letters to you as I want to have you reimbursed from here by the house of Fries to the house of Coutts in London. Unless the publisher B. objects, in which case he must send me notice immediately by post, the Sonata with violin will appear here on June 15th, the Trio on July 15th, concerning the pianoforte arrangement of the Symphony, I will inform Herr B. when it is to come out. Neate must now be in London; I gave him to carry with him a number of my compositions; and he promised to put them to the best use for me, greet him for me. Archduke Rudolph also plays your works with me, my dear Ries, of which Il sogno pleases me particularly. Farewell, my dear R., commend me to your dear wife as well as all the pretty English women to whom it might give pleasure.
Appeals to Charles Neate
On May 15, a letter of condolence to Countess Erdödy was called out by the sudden death of her son Fritzi. At the countryseat in Croatia, the lad burst one morning into his sister’s room and, complaining of his head, with a cry of anguish sank dead at her feet. Beethoven labors sadly in his effort to find words of comfort for the stricken mother: “Reflect that your son might have been forced to go into battle and might then, like millions of others, have met his death, besides you are still the mother of two dear, hopeful children.” On the same day he wrote a French letter to Neate which, because of its characteristic style and unconventional spelling, Moscheles reproduced literally. A paragraph will suffice us here:
Avanthier on me portait un extrait d’une Gazette anglaise nommée Morning cronigle, ou je lisoit avec grand plasir, que la societé philharmonique à donné ma sinfonie in A♯; c’est une grande satisfaction pour moi, mais je souhais bien d’avoir de vous même des nouvelles, que vous ferez avec tous les compositions, que j’ai vous donnés; vous m’avez promis ici, de donner un concert pour moi, mais ne prenez mal, si je me méfis un peu, quand je pense que le Prince regent d’angleterre ne me dignoit pas ni d’une reponse ni d’une autre reconnaissance pour la Bataile que j’ai envoyé a son Altesse, et lequelle on a donnée si souvent a Londre, et seulement les gazettes annoncoient le reussir de cet œuvre et rien d’autre chose....
The following letter of a few days later was written in English, probably by Häring, and only signed by Beethoven:
Vienna, May 18, 1816.