Chapter 6 - Premiere and Celebratory Dinner

Summary

Friday, May 7, 1824—During the Day

As usual, Beethoven must have been up early on the morning of Friday, May 7.1 Nephew Karl left Beethoven's apartment by 8 a.m., so as to be in the Kärntnertor Theater's box office by 8:30 to serve as observer for ticket sales.

Schindler arrived, probably already in a fiacre, with a list of eleven people who were to receive a total of 22 locked (gesperrte) seats: soprano Sontag, contralto Unger, conductor Umlauf, Zeitung editor Bernard, physician Staudenheim, and Josephstadt Theater manager Hensler in the parterre; with Beobachter editor Pilat, financial adviser Kirchhoffer, Theater-Zeitung editor Bäuerle, brother Johann, and the printer who provided copies of “An die Freude” in the fourth gallery. Schindler departed to make the complimentary ticket deliveries, and, probably a little later, Beethoven left his apartment to visit the barber and run other errands.

When Karl came home for midday dinner, Beethoven had not yet returned from having his hair cut. Karl was probably anxious to tell him about the successful morning at the box office and so left him a note:

“Dearest Uncle! Since I must be in the box office at 3 o’clock, I’ve eaten quickly, because it would take too long to wait for you. We’ll see each other this evening. In general, it has gone well. The boxes are sold; a few even overpaid, with 25 and 50 fl. In the 4th floor, all the seats are gone. I still hope to dispose of the remaining [seats] in the parterre and 1st gallery. Your son, Carl.”

The next Tuesday, May 11, while looking back on the previous Friday, Karl confirmed: “The tickets for the 4th floor were gone at 11 o’clock.”6 He had already reported that “the people in front of the box office almost had a fight, in order to get near. The push [to buy tickets] was that great.”

In midafternoon, Schindler returned to Beethoven's apartment to get a fair copy of the vocal score that he had promised to “the girl,” only to find that there was none. Beethoven evidently scolded him about it, and he retorted that the public already knew about the disorganization (Liederlichkeit) surrounding the upcoming performance.