In May 1825, Beethoven wrote a souvenir canon for Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab, who probably didn’t deserve one.
Rellstab is most remembered in Beethoven lore as the man who wrote that a particular movement of a Beethoven piano sonata reminded him of the moon above Lake Lucerne, thus giving the piano sonata the rather inappropriate nickname of “Moonlight.” (Day 140).
He was the son of a music publisher and pianist, but he does not seem to have inherited any musical ability, either in creation or appreciation. Here’s a short bio by Graham Johnson, the accompanist who recorded the complete Schubert lieder.
In his autobiography, Ludwig Rellstab tells of a brief acquaintance with Beethoven in spring 1825. Fifteen pages of these reminiscences are included in Beethoven: Impressions by His Contemporaries, pp. 176–191. In his first visit, Rellstab’s spies a half-filled glass:
“Could Beethoven have left this half-emptied glass?” I wondered. And the desire seized me to drink what was left, as a secret theft of brotherhood in common, that brotherhood by which German custom binds two hearts.
Rellstab wants to write an opera libretto for Beethoven, and he leaves some of his poems. (According to Schindler, these were forwarded to Schubert after Beethoven’s death, and seven of them became part of the posthumously published collection called the “Schwanengesang.”)
Rellstab has the opportunity to see a performance of the Opus 127 String Quartet (Day 343) during which it is played twice. Rellstab shares with his readers his true views:
To this day I have my own scruples anent expressing my conviction that in this last, enigmatic work by Beethoven are to be found only the ruins of the erstwhile youthful and virile exaltation of his genius; that it often is buried beneath the most disordered rubble and wreckage.
But in response to Beethoven’s query about how he liked the quartet Rellstab gushes “I was devoutly and profoundly moved to the depths of my soul.”
Ludwig Rellstab’s reminiscences of Beethoven conclude with a final meeting as he was leaving Vienna. Beethoven gives him a short letter dated 3 May 1825 with a canon based on the text “Das Schöne zu dem Guten” (“The Beautiful to the Good”). This is the last line of Friedrich von Matthisson’s “Opferlied,” which Beethoven set as a song (Day 126) and a choral piece (Day 340) and a previous canon (Day 335), although Beethoven contracted “zu dem” to “zum” for that one.
This canon is reproduced in Beethoven: Impressions by His Contemporaries” p. 191; in Emily Anderson translation of Beethoven’s Letters, No. 1366b; and on page 225 of Ludwig Nohl’s 1877 compendium of accounts from Beethoven’s contemporaries.
#Beethoven250 Day 344
Canon “Das Schöne zu dem Guten” (WoO 203), 1825
A studio recording of this short music realized as a canon.