The only evidence that Beethoven and Rossini ever met is Rossini’s recollection many years later during an 1860 conversation with Wagner. Rossini talked about a visit to Beethoven during the spring of 1822 when Rossini’s opera Zelmira was premiering in Vienna:
When I mounted the stairs leading to the poor lodgings of the great man, I barely mastered my emotions. When the door opened, I found myself in a sort of attic terribly disordered and dirty. I remember particularly the ceiling. It was under the roof and showed crevices through which the rain could not help pouring down in streams.
Rossini quotes Beethoven’s praises of his most famous opera, but the compliment turns backhanded:
Ah! Rossini, you, the composer of the Barbiere di Seviglia? My congratulations; that is an excellent opera buffa; I have read it with pleasure and I enjoyed myself. It will be played so long as Italian opera will exist. Do never try your hand at anything but opera buffa; you would be doing violence to your destiny by wanting to succeed in a different genre.
Beethoven knew some of Rossini’s serious operas such as Tancredi and Otello but he was much less impressed by those:
Serious opera does not lie in the nature of the Italians. For the true drama, they know not enough of the science of music; and how should they acquire that in Italy? … In opera buffa none can equal Italians. Your language and your temperament predestine you for it.
Rossini recalled further:
The visit was short. That is easily understood because one side of the conversation had to be carried on in writing. I expressed to him all my admiration for his genius, all my gratitude for having given me the opportunity to express it. He answered with a deep sigh and the single word: “Oh! un infelice.” — from Beethoven: Impressions by His Contemporaries, pp. 116–120
Beethoven’s three canons collected as WoO 181 were all composed in the spring and summer of 1822. Very little seems to be known about them except that the second and third were found among the sketches for the Missa Solemnis.
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Canon “Gedenket heute an Baden” (WoO 181, No. 1), 1822
An animated score accompanies a studio recording in which four voices join in proclaiming that they’re “remembering Baden today.”
Why would Beethoven be remembering Baden while writing the Missa Solemnis? In a 1970 article, p. 673, Warren Kirkendale suggests that Beethoven’s conception of the Trinity was influenced by an altar piece in a Baden church.
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Canon “Gedenket heute an Baden” (WoO 181, No. 1), 1822
A live performance in Mexico, although I’m not sure why.
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Canon “Gehabt euch wohl” (WoO 181, No. 2), 1822
The text can mean “Have a good time” or “Enjoy yourself.”
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Canon “Tugend is kein leerer Name” (WoO 181, No. 3), 1822
“Virtue is not an empty word” sing the three voices in this canon.