the times | Friday April 8 2022 19
News
His reputation as a towering figure in
the field of classical music is assured.
But it seems that in his own lifetime,
Ludwig van Beethoven just wasn’t paid
his dues.
In an unearthed four-page letter,
Beethoven complained that he was not
being remunerated fairly for his work,
saying that if he were to accept one
price on offer he would be a “loser”.
Thought to have been written in 1815,
the note is being sold at auction this
month and is expected to fetch at least
£50,000. Addressed to Georg Friedrich
Treitschke, the German poet and
librettist, Beethoven asks his friend to
secure him a payment of two hundred
gold ducats for a planned opera.
Treitschke, who lived in Vienna for
much of his career, worked with Beet-
hoven to revise the libretto for his only
opera, Fidelio, which premiered in the
Austrian capital in 1814. In return, Beet-
hoven said he would compose music for
one of Treitschke’s productions.
But the plan fell through because
Beethoven objected to the low rate of
I’m no loser: Beethoven’s ode to being paid fairly
Laurence Sleator pay. In the letter, he urged Treitschke to
intervene and negotiate with the
theatre management in Vienna, noting
that he could earn more in London.
He wrote: “There is nothing I should
like better than to be able to write
altogether gratis, but in the present
state of things such a thing would be
difficult for a German, or much more
an Austrian artist! Only London could
make one so fat, that one would be able
afterwards to resist in Germany, or
rather here, the leanest bits.
“I am paid, for instance, for an
oratorio such as the Christ on the
Mount of Olives, which only takes half
an evening, or only one hour and nine
minutes, 200 ducats in gold.. .”
Beethoven complained he would
“lose too much” if he accepted the
theatre management’s offer, “however
many sacrifices I have willingly made
and am making for the sake of my art”.
He added: “I assure you that they
would not find the conditions exorbitant
which I have mentioned and settled
upon for one opera. I therefore beg
you in a friendly way to speak with NN;
they cannot wish me to be a loser.”
Although comfortable, Beethoven
was not exceedingly wealthy, consider-
ing his status. In 1809, to persuade him
to stay in Vienna for the rest of his
career, three wealthy patrons agreed to
pay him 4,000 florins each year. They
did this until he died 18 years later.
In his letter to Treitschke, he knew
his worth: “I am firmly convinced that
any place in Germany or elsewhere
would pay me at least as well as any
other man,” he added.
By that stage of his career, Beethoven
had already produced his First, Third
and Fifth Symphonies as well as his
Violin Concerto in D Major in what
scholars call his most prolific “heroic”phase, which lasted until about 1812. In
the note he also complained about not
seeing Treitschke, but was not overly
apologetic. “I am too busy even today to
enjoy the gradually disappearing beau-
tiful weather, and to rove about in the
half-withering woods,” he said.
Beethoven was also starting to suffer
from hearing difficulties that would
affect his mental health and how often
he performed at concerts. However, he
continued to compose music, using
novel hearing-aid contraptions to
make his troubles more bearable.
The letter is being sold online by the
American company RR Auction, with
the sale due to end next Thursday.Ludwig van Beethoven asked in vain
for more money to work on an operapatrick kiddTMS
[email protected] | @timesdiaryMoggy minor
interruption
A gatecrasher chose an apposite
moment to saunter into St Paul’s,
Covent Garden, during yesterday’s
memorial service for Nicholas
Parsons, who died in 2020 at 96.
As Dame Sheila Hancock was
reading The Owl and the Pussycat
— for the actor and presenter was
a big Edward Lear fan — in
wandered a small whiskery
creature with a bell around its
neck. “It’s Mrs Higgins,” explained
Simon Grigg, rector of the Actors’
Church. Dame Esther Rantzen
praised the cat’s perfect timing but
said: “It would have been over the
top if an owl, a piggywig and a
turkey came in as well.” Hancock
prefaced her reading by recalling
Parsons’ kindness, a contrast, she
said, to “those dreadful men”
(Clement Freud, Kenneth
Williams and Derek Nimmo) who
were regulars on Radio 4’s Just a
Minute when she first appeared in
1967, adding: “They reduced
Barbara Castle to tears.”A eulogy was given by the Rev
Roger Royle, who used to do the
God slot on Radio 2 and has handled
many entertainment funerals. He
said that Parsons, below, was one of
only two to book him while alive —
“though he didn’t give me a date” —
the other being David Jacobs, who
was Jewish. “I had to get Rabbi Julia
Neuberger to share the service,”
Royle said, “though that caused a
problem over who got top billing.”worthy of repetition
Many stories were told about
Parsons’ 75-year career, more
than 50 of them spent hosting
Just a Minute. Paul Merton
said Parsons was known
everywhere because of it
— everywhere, that is,
apart from Broadcasting
House. Near the end of
his life, he was stopped
in the foyer by a BBCsecurity guard. “Are you here for
Just a Minute?” he asked. Parsons
nodded. “Well, the queue starts
outside round the corner,” the
guard told him. Merton said his
longevity was a marvel. “He was
the only star still working who is
mentioned in the Bible,” he said.
“He did the cabaret at the Last
Supper. It was a tough crowd.”he’ll have a half of mild
Another part of my childhood
passed away yesterday with the
death of David McKee, creator of
that bowler-hatted fantasist and
frequenter of fancy-dress shops Mr
Benn. McKee was protective of the
character’s reputation as a man of
high morals. When Ray Brooks,
the actor who narrated the series,
wrote his autobiography, he told
McKee he’d like to have him and
Benn on the cover holding pints of
beer. After a pause, McKee said:
“Mr Benn only drinks halves.”News yesterday that the UK
Antarctic Heritage Trust is seeking
recruits to count penguins reminded
me of a joke from primary school.
Teacher: “Why don’t polar bears eat
penguins?” Pupil: “Because their
paws can’t open the wrappers.”still standing
Lots of niche museums have been
sent in. Andrew Clark nominates
the Centro del Calamar Gigante in
Asturias, Spain, which had the
world’s largest collection of giant
squid. It is due to reopen this year
after being closed in 2014 when
the building was badly damaged in
a storm. Andrew says the exhibits
“would have made calamari the
size of car tyres”. And Frank
Lawton says that Reykjavik’s
Phallological Museum, with
its 200 penises from 46
different species of mammal,
would be cock-a-hoop to get a
mention. I wonder if it has a
Friends scheme. I’m
sure they’re always
on the lookout for
new members.