My thanks for the food sent yesterday. A sick man longs for such things like a child and therefore I beg you to-day for the peach compote. As regards other food I must get the advice of the physicians. Concerning the wine they consider the Grinzinger beneficial but prefer old Krumpholz Kirchener over all others.—I hope this statement will not cause you to misunderstand me.
Others who sent him gifts of wine were Streicher and Breuning, and, as we see from one of the letters, Malfatti himself. There is considerable talk in the C. B. about wine. His days were numbered—why should any comfort be denied him?
The Reputed Visit by Schubert
Concerning the last few days of his life the Conversation Books provide absolutely no information. There is no record of the visit of Schubert to the bedside of the dying man, but the account given by Schindler is probably correct in the main. On page 136 of the second volume of his biography of Beethoven, Schindler says:
As only a few of Franz Schubert’s compositions were known to him and obsequious persons had always been busily engaged in throwing suspicion on his talent, I took advantage of the favorable moment to place before him several of the greater songs, such as “Die junge Nonne,” “Die Bürgschaft,” “Der Taucher,” “Elysium” and the Ossianic songs, acquaintance with which gave the master great pleasure; so much, indeed, that he spoke his judgment in these words: “Truly, the divine spark lives in Schubert,” and so forth. At the time, however, only a small number of Schubert’s works had appeared in print.
Here no date is fixed for the incident and a little suspicion was cast upon the story because of the fact that only “Die junge Nonne” of all the songs mentioned had been published at the time of Beethoven’s death. Schindler helped himself measurably out of the dilemma by saying in an article published in the “Theaterzeitung” of May 3, 1831, that many of the songs which he laid before Beethoven were in manuscript. He contradicts his statement made in the biography, however, by saying: “What would the great master have said had he seen, for instance the Ossianic songs, ‘Die Bürgschaft,’ ‘Elysium,’ ‘Der Taucher’ and other great ones which have only recently been published?” As usual, Schindler becomes more explicit when he comes to explain one of his utterances. Now he says:
As the illness to which Beethoven finally succumbed after four months of suffering from the beginning made his ordinary mental activity impossible, a diversion had to be thought of which would fit his mind and inclinations. And so it came about that I placed before him a collection of Schubert’s songs, about 60 in number, among them many which were then still in manuscript. This was done not only to provide him with a pleasant entertainment, but also to give him an opportunity to get acquainted with Schubert in his essence in order to get from him a favorable opinion of Schubert’s talent, which had been impugned, as had that of others by some of the exalted ones. The great master, who before then had not known five songs of Schubert’s, was amazed at their number and refused to believe that up to that time (February, 1827) he had already composed over 500 of them. But if he was astonished at the number he was filled with the highest admiration as soon as he discovered their contents. For several days he could not separate himself from them, and every day he spent hours with Iphigenia’s monologue, “Die Grenzen der Menschheit,” “Die Allmacht,” “Die junge Nonne,” “Viola,” the “Müllerlieder,” and others. With joyous enthusiasm he cried out repeatedly: “Truly, a divine spark dwells in Schubert; if I had had this poem I would have set it to music”; this in the case of the majority of poems whose material contents and original treatment by Schubert he could not praise sufficiently. Nor could he understand how Schubert had time to “take in hand such long poems, many of which contained ten others,” as he expressed it.... What would the master have said had he seen, for instance, the Ossianic songs, “Die Bürgschaft,” “Elysium,” “Der Taucher” and other great ones which have only recently been published? In short, the respect which Beethoven acquired for Schubert’s talent was so great that he now wanted to see his operas and pianoforte pieces; but his illness had now become so severe that he could no longer gratify this wish. But he often spoke of Schubert and predicted of him that he “would make a great sensation in the world,” and often regretted that he had not learned to know him earlier.
It is likely that the remark, “Truly, the divine spark dwells in Schubert,” as Schindler quoted it in his biography, came more than once from Beethoven’s lips. Luib heard Hüttenbrenner say that one day Beethoven said of Schubert, “He has the divine spark!” Schindler’s article in the “Theaterzeitung” was a defense of the opinion which he had expressed that Schubert was a greater song-composer than Beethoven, and for this reason it may be assumed that it was a little high-pitched in expression. Beethoven knew a little about Schubert, but not much, as appears from a remark quoted from Holz in one of the Conversation Books of 1826. It may have been Schindler’s ambition to appear as having stood sponsor for Schubert before Beethoven which led him to ignore Holz’s remark concerning Schubert’s unique genius as a writer of songs, his interest in Handel and his patronage of Schuppanzigh’s quartet parties. Beethoven and Schubert had met. Anselm Hüttenbrenner wrote to Luib:[176]
But this I know positively, that about eight days before Beethoven’s death Prof. Schindler, Schubert and I visited the sick man, Schindler announced us two and asked Beethoven whom he would see first. He said: “Let Schubert come first.”
It is characteristic of Schindler that he makes no mention of this incident. Another incident recorded by Gerhard von Breuning deserves to be told here. When Beethoven’s friends called they usually reported to Beethoven about the performances of his works. One day Gerhard von Breuning found that a visitor had written in the Conversation Book: “Your Quartet which Schuppanzigh played yesterday did not please.” Beethoven was asleep when Gerhard came and when he awoke the lad pointed to the entry. Beethoven remarked, laconically: “It will please them some day,” adding that he wrote only as he thought best and would not permit himself to be deceived by the judgment of the day, saying at the end: “I know that I am an artist.”