[184] In consequence of this offer, the Philharmonic Society ordered a Symphony for one hundred guineas, and he accordingly sent them his Ninth Symphony.—ED.
[185] I have, in my edition of this Sonata, marked the time of the first movement 138 of Maelzel's Metronome, because Beethoven himself had fixed that number. He, according to "Wegeler's Notizen," gives it with a minim—I with a crotchet; but neither of these can, to my mind, be made to suit the character of the movement. The minim increases it to so fearful a prestissimo as Beethoven could never have intended, since he desired the Assai, originally prefixed to the Allegro, to be omitted. The crotchet slackens the movement all too much; and although I have, in my edition, allowed Beethoven's numbers to remain, in deference to the great man, yet I would advise the player to hold a middle course, according to the following mark:
= 116.—ED.
[A] Ries gives the following account of this new bar:—All the "Initiated" must be interested in the striking fact which occurred respecting one of Beethoven's last solo-Sonatas (in B major, with the great Fugue Op. 106)—a Sonata which has forty-one pages of print. Beethoven had sent it to me to London for sale, that it might appear there at the same time as in Germany. The engraving was completed, and I in daily expectation of the letter naming the day of publication. This arrived at last, but with the extraordinary "request,"—"Prefix the following two notes, as a first bar, to the beginning of the Adagio." This Adagio has from nine to ten pages in print. I own the thought struck me involuntarily, that all might not be right with my dear old master, a rumour to that effect having often been spread. What! add two notes to a composition already worked out and out, and completed six months ago? But my astonishment was yet to be heightened by the effect of these two notes. Never could such be found again—so striking, so important—no, not even if contemplated at the very beginning of the composition. I would advise every true lover of the art to play this Adagio first without, and then with these two notes, which now form the first bar, and I have no doubt he will share in my opinion.
[B] This minim should be a crotchet—an error which originates either in a misprint in Dr. Wegeler's "Notizen," or in Beethoven's own manuscript letter to Ries.—ED.
[186] How numerous his proposals! How much scope he leaves me! Was it in presentiment of the difficulties which would attend its sale?—RIES.
[187] The plan for Beethoven's journey.
[188] The letter, sealed in two places, as also the direction on the cover, were written in Beethoven's own hand. These were inclosed in a letter to me, and a cover put over the whole. Probably the address seemed so illegible to himself that he put a third cover over it, without removing the second one.—RIES.
[189] Seventeen shillings: ten and a fifth florins.—RIES.