Yours,
BEETHOVEN.
[Footnote 1: The Rochlitz'sche article is probably the report in the A.M. Zeitung of the works performed at the grand concert of May 7.]
384.
TO HERR SCHOTT,--MAYENCE.
1824.
The Overture[1] that you got from my brother was recently performed here, and I received many eulogiums on the occasion.
What is all this compared to the grandest of all masters of harmony above! above! above! Rightfully the Most High! While here below all is a mere mockery--Dwarfs--and the Most High!!
You shall receive the Quartet with the other works. You are open and candid, qualities which I never before found in publishers, and this pleases me. I say so in writing, but who knows whether it may not soon be in person? I wish you would transmit the sum due for the Quartet to P., as at this moment I require a great deal of money, for I derive everything from foreign sources, and sometimes a delay occurs--caused by myself.
[Footnote 1: The Overture to which he alludes is no doubt Op. 124, in C major, Zur Weihe des Hauses, published by Schott. It was performed in the great concert of May 23 of this year (1824), which in the estimation of a Beethoven, already absorbed in new great works, might well be termed "recently performed." Schott himself says the letter is written between July 3 and September 17, 1824.]
385.
TO THE ARCHDUKE RUDOLPH.
Baden, August 23, 1824.