1814 -1815 – Beethoven & the Congress of Vienna

Enter Ludwig van Beethoven, the monumental musician of the age.  My remarkable encounter with him came about after Lord & Lady Burghersch had travelled from Berlin to the Congress of Vienna, which lasted from November 1814 until June 1815.  This extraordinary gathering was convened after the downfall of Napoleon, with the aim of providing a long-term peace plan for all of Europe.

As it happened, the vast numbers of participants from across the continent spent more time and energy on entertainment, music-making, social interaction and sexual indiscretion, than dealing with the urgent political opportunities for lasting peace and freedom in Europe.

What’s music for?

My particular involvement at the Congress brought to the fore the great diversity which exists in the understanding of the purpose of music-making. Of course, music is a (necessary) entertainment for many people, and a certain sort, which is essentially a distraction, can serve to help us avoid the urgent and difficult issues of the day. A lot of music popular at the beginning of this nineteenth century fell into that category, and on the rare occasions when Lady Priscilla did play me, I felt as though I was being ‘toyed with’ as a useful and attractive diversion. I don’t think she was even slightly aware of the new resonant nuances I now had within me, and which Friederich Schleiermacher so skilfully had drawn out of me.

Count Andrei Razumovsky, the chief Russian negotiator at the Vienna Congress, and one of Beethoven’s ardent patrons, paid excessive and unwanted attention to Lady Priscilla, but also he seemed particularly enamoured with me. He couldn’t keep his hands off me!   He liked me so much that he ‘borrowed’ me to play at a concert of some of Beethoven’s new works, held in the Emperor’s Hofburg Palace in the Redoutensaal, on 29 November 1814. 

(Count Alexei Razumovsky)

Amazing Performance!

We played the astonishing Seventh Symphony, along with ‘Wellington’s Victory’ and ‘Der glorreiche Augenblick’. Louis Spohr, Domenico Dragonetti, Johann Hummel, Giacomo Meyerbeer were all there, and Beethoven himself (now sadly so very hard of hearing) tried to conduct. The composer Michael Umlauf helped him out many times – but even so the excitement was palpable!

From my point of view and of hearing, placed among the string players of the orchestra, the emotional experience of playing the Seventh Symphony could not be compared to the other two pieces, which were, frankly, ‘light weight’ and disappointing in the extreme.

Why Pot-Boilers?

  Although the audience received the ground-breaking Symphony with appreciation, they roared their approval for both ‘Wellington’s Victory’ and the ‘Augenblick’!  I was stunned.  Here was Ludwig van Beethoven – the greatest living composer – falling for cheap ‘pot-boilers’ and giving the aristocracy of Europe mere pleasure and spectacular entertainment.  Even Johann Nepomuk Mälzel’s mechanical invention, his ‘Panharmonicon’ was employed in ‘Wellington’s Victory’ to great acclaim. Not a few diplomats (with their women) left the concert hall well before the end, and the whole Austrian delegation stayed away, suspecting that Beethoven was too involved with Russian ideals, through his ambassador patron Count Razumovsky.

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(Maezel’s ‘Panharmonicon’)

In my hearing, Beethoven commented that his involvement with the Congress was a great moment for him as a human being. Maybe, but the concert seemed to make no connection whatever to the political nature of the Congress. I will repeat time and time again that there must be a deeper influential aspect to music-making than providing only ‘entertainment’ or a pleasant distraction’.

Even as Beethoven struggled desperately to conduct “The Glorious Moment”, the Congress it celebrated was still no closer to resolving any of its disputes. However, I believe it could have been very different, and surely Music and Politics can, and should, influence each another!

More about my contact with Beethoven, next time………..