Just a few lines about what is most necessary. You are short of the title for the Mass [Opus 87]; and I have too much of several things, of bathing, idling and so forth; and I am weary of many other unavoidable incidents and startling events – Well, you can now see and know that I am here. My doctor [Jakob Staudenheim] chases me from one spot to another to enable me finally to recover good health, i.e. from Teplitz to Karlsbad, from Karlsbad to where I now am [Anderson footnote: “So far as is known, Beethoven left Teplitz on July 2yth, arrived at Franzensbad on August 8th and returned to Carlsbad on September 7th. He was again at Teplitz on September 16th.”] At K[arlsbad] I played before the Saxons and Prussians something in aid of the town of Baden which had been destroyed by fire. [Anderson footnote: “This concert was given at Carlsbad on August 6th.. The inner part of the town of Baden near Vienna had been nearly destroyed by fire on July 26th to 28th.”]. It was, so to speack, a poor concert for the poor. Signor Polledrone supported me and played well after he had overcome his usual nervousness. –
The title might run something like this: ‘To His Excellency the highly born Prince Kinsky’ –
Well, I must now refrain from writing anything more and instead I must splash about again in the water. Hardly have I performed the duty of filling my inside with a large quantity of this water when again I must have my outer surface washed down with it several times – I will soon reply to the remaining points in your letter – Goethe delights far too much in the court atmosphere, far more than is becoming to a poet. [Anderson footnote: “After meeting Beethoven at Teplitz, Goethe in a letter to K. F. Zelter from Carlsbad, dated September 2, 1812, described the impression he had formed of his eminent contemporary: ‘I met Beethoven at Teplitz. His talent amazed me; but unfortunately he has an absolutely uncontrolled personality. Admittedly he is not wrong in finding the world detestable, and yet by so doing he does not make it any more pleasant either for himself or for others. At the same time he deserves to be greatly forgiven and greatly pitied, for his deafness is increasing. This impairs the musical side of his nature perhaps less than the social side. Naturally of a reserved disposition he is becoming doubly so by reason of this infirmity.’”] How can one really say very much about the ridiculous behavior of virtuosi in this respect, when poets, who should be regarded as the leading teachers of the nation, can forget everything else when confronted with that glitter –
Your
Beethoven
I have this moment written for the full title of Prince Kinsky. So you will surely receive it in time, since I presume that you will not publish the Mass before the autumn –