Transcript: Beethoven Walk
0 Intro
Servus! Welcome on a journey through Vienna – a walk that will show you Beethoven in a fresh new light. Let me take you to the scenes of Beethoven’s greatest triumphs, as well as the places that reveal his greatest mental pain.
I will show you the corners of the old town where Beethoven channeled all of his energies into his work, as well as the idyllic places beyond the old city walls which the composer sought out when he needed to recharge his batteries. You will also see a different side to Beethoven, one which is perhaps less well-known – his tendency to move house frequently and his unique approach to housekeeping! Off we go!
1 Beethoven View
At first glance it seems that there is little here on this spot between the sausage stand, Cafe Mozart and the Albertina to recall Beethoven. But appearances can be misleading. From this spot you can see three important locations that once hosted the composer’s premieres. Is the escalator leading up to the Albertina right behind you and the horse-drawn carriage stand in front of you? Good. If you look left now, along Augustinerstrasse, you will see the corner of a Baroque city palace in the distance – that building is called Palais Lobkowitz. Today, it is home to the Theater Museum. In 1804, it hosted the private Vienna premiere of Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. And looking out over the square, opposite the Albertina, can you see the sign outside the court-appointed tailors Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe. Yes? On the ledge between the ground floor and the central protrusion? The entrance to the Kärntnertor Theater was here. It was the venue for the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. That was in 1824. 50 years later, the theater was knocked down. Today, the zone is occupied by Hotel Sacher, among other buildings.
From your current location you can see the back of the Vienna State Opera. It took eight years to build. On May 25, 1869 the opera house was finally ready: it opened with a performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, which was attended by the Emperor and his entourage. Gustav Mahler, appointed director of the opera house in 1897, initiated pioneering reforms which brought about a golden age of opera.
At the end of World War II, the building was heavily damaged in bombing raids. But opera was back in 1945, using the Volksoper and MusikTheater an der Wien as temporary venues. There was a lot of work to be done before the Vienna State Opera house could finally reopen a decade later on November 5, 1955. The first performance was Beethoven’s Fidelio, an opera about freedom. This came just a few months after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty – an emotional time for many, as Austria was a sovereign state once again for the first time in 21 years. Today, the Vienna State Opera is one of the world's leading opera houses.
2 House of Music
How often have you moved house in your life? Not as many times as Beethoven, I bet. He is said to have moved around 60 times during his 35 years in the city! It’s easy to lose track: sometimes Beethoven let the admin run away from him and ended up paying rent on multiple properties at once. The House of Music is the ideal place to retrace Beethoven’s steps as he zig-zagged from place to place around Vienna, as recorded in the city’s register of addresses. The museum shows all of Beethoven’s former apartments at a glance, marked out on a map of the city that Sherlock Holmes would have loved.
But that’s not all. You can also follow in the footsteps of Mozart, Haydn and Schubert behind the facade of this beautiful Baroque building. But what would a museum like this be without the music? I’m pretty sure that there is a talented composer hidden inside you somewhere. Even non-musicians can put together their very own waltz at the House of Music. And you can take your special composition home with you as a souvenir. You can also try your hand on stage, performing in front of a virtual orchestra. It’s impossible not to think about how Beethoven must have felt when conducting, given his failing hearing... In the Beethoven Room, one of the centerpieces of the museum, visitors can even HEAR like Beethoven. So what did the world sound like to him in 1818, when he could only communicate in writing? No wonder he looks so troubled in this cast of his face taken while he was still alive, now on display in the Beethoven room. And his death mask: clearly marked by his troubles, but released from suffering.
3 Old University
If Beethoven was to walk around the corner from Bäckerstrasse today, he’d notice the cars – and the building at number 18 – otherwise, everything is pretty much exactly as it was. Moving clockwise you will see the Jesuitenkirche church, the ensemble of buildings around the old university, and, most strikingly of all, the facade of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Constructed between 1753 and 1755, the building was the main location of the old university and became known as the Neue Aula. At the time, it was a highly modern design – the double columns on the facade were a real novelty. The grand hall inside is completed in the lavish Rococo style – the sheer opulence is almost breathtaking. Making it the perfect place for what was probably Beethoven’s greatest success with the public – the world premiere of the Seventh Symphony.
It took place on December 8, 1813. The Seventh was an enormous success. Much like Beethoven’s larger than life “tone painting” known as Wellington’s Victory, or the Battle of Vitoria. The audiences were blown away: It is a bombastic musical spectacle with fanfares, cannonades and a fugal treatment of “God Save the King”. The composition was written to mark the French defeat in northern Spain. Viennese society wouldn’t have missed the performance for the world. The concert was attended by the musical “creme de la creme” including Antonio Salieri, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Giacomo Meyerbeer. And the orchestra featured some of the most famous musicians of the day.
The battle music triggered a wave of euphoria and the monumental performance was later repeated several times. Today, the piece is only performed rarely, while the opposite goes for his Seventh Symphony, which is a regular fixture on the repertoires of most great orchestras. Beethoven himself named it “one of the happiest products of my poor talents”.
4 Beethoven Monument – 3. District
Beethoven was no turncoat. He could get really rough when something didn't suit him. This bronze version of the stubborn composer, however, has done an involuntary pirouette, following work to remodel the site around the memorial. When it was originally unveiled in 1880, Beethoven looked towards the palace on the Ringstrasse boulevard. Two decades later the Wienfluss river was covered over. Which left Beethoven with his back to what was now the more attractive side of the square. This little cosmetic issue was quickly corrected by rotating the memorial 180 degrees.
Today, Beethoven faces the Wiener Konzerthaus. This building opened in 1913 – with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In the foyer of the Konzerthaus you can get even closer to Beethoven, as there is a cast of the memorial just behind the bar – in grey and white, and without the plinth.
It was created by the architect Caspar Zumbusch. He won the competition to create the Beethoven memorial, which was held by the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, 44 years after Beethoven’s death. Various stars from the world of music helped to finance the project – chief among them Franz Liszt, a real Beethoven fan, and Johannes Brahms.
The memorial on Beethoven Platz symbolizes success – and pain: to his right is Nike, goddess of victory, holding a laurel wreath upwards. On the other side, Prometheus cowers in chains. And if you look carefully, you can see an eagle tearing the liver from Prometheus’ body. Quite unpleasant, really. And Beethoven is seated above as we imagine him to be: reflective, with wild hair. The image that we have of him is shaped by representations such as this. But who was he really?
5 Secession
The Viennese refer to this building as “the cabbage”, in reference to the striking dome of leaves on the roof, which reminds us of a head of cabbage. The Secession was inaugurated as a temple of the arts – and as you can see, the building still radiates something sacred to this day. Above the portal is the rallying cry of the group of artists who built it: "To every age its art, to every art its freedom”. And it was precisely this freedom that the revolutionary Viennese artists claimed for themselves. Its members had had enough of the conservative art establishment. In 1897, they set up their own artists’ movement known as the “Vienna Secession”. This is their exhibition hall, which was built the following year, according to the plans of Joseph Maria Olbrich. The Secession was, without a doubt, the cradle of Viennese Modernism. To this day, it remains a very special exhibition space. It is also home to a very impressive Beethoven-related art work.
The Beethoven Frieze is on display, for all to see, in the basement. The piece is one of the key works by Gustav Klimt, a co-founder of the Secession. Nice, but what is a frieze, anyway? A frieze is a horizontal architectural feature – and Klimt’s take on it assumed particularly impressive dimensions, at 34 meters in length, and two meters high.
Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze in 1902. As the name suggests, the piece pays homage to the great composer. Klimt took his inspiration from Richard Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The legendary opera composer Wagner, described Beethoven’s best-known work as “the human gospel of the art of the future.”
Klimt created the art of the future – the Beethoven Frieze can be read like a comic strip. Klimt leads our eye from left to right: considered one after the other, the groups of figures tell a story that expresses humankind’s desire for happiness. A journey full of privations and terrors, portrayed in bizarre figures and dramatic character sketches. The artist focuses on expressive ugliness as well as lascivious eroticism – it was all too much for some of his contemporaries and triggered a major scandal at the time.
Focusing on Beethoven was an important step in Klimt’s development as an artist: this monumental allegory set the stage for the main works from his Golden Period.
6 MusikTheater an der Wien
Papageno Tor. That’s the name of the side entrance to the MusikTheater an der Wien. It is quite a lot older than the main entrance opposite Naschmarkt. Here you can get a genuine feel for what the theater would have looked liked when Beethoven worked here – in fact, he actually lived here too!
It came about like this:
the MusikTheater an der Wien opened in 1801. And was the city’s most modern venue at the time. Its director was Emanuel Schikaneder. The singer, writer and actor had already notched up significant successes with Mozart – most notably as the librettist of the Magic Flute. Schikaneder immortalized himself here at his own theater – can you see the central figure above the green door? It shows Schikaneder as Papageno – which is where the entrance gets its name from.
Schikaneder landed a major musical coup two years after the theater opened when he secured the services of a star composer for the venue: Ludwig van Beethoven. The deal included a regular wage and an apartment in the building at the front of the theater.
Unfortunately, this part of the venue no longer exists. It was replaced in 1900 by a building designed by the famous theater architects Fellner and Helmer.
Beethoven used his lodgings at the theater between 1803 and 1804. But visitors were surprised by how untidy they were. His friend Kapellmeister Ignaz Seyfried reported:
“In his household a truly admirable confusion … books and music strewn in every corner, there the remains of a cold snack – here sealed or half-empty bottles – there on the lectern rough sketches for a new quartet, between the windows a respectable slab of Stracchino cheese, to the side substantial debris from a genuine Verona salami [...].”
Theater impresario Schikaneder invested great hopes in Beethoven – and the composer certainly delivered: two different versions of his opera Fidelio made their debut at the MusikTheater an der Wien – as did his violin concerto, his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies as well as the Second Symphony with a pioneering orchestral experience so remarkable for the way in which it redefined forever what an orchestra could sound like.
In 2006, the MusikTheater an der Wien went back to its roots, reopening as an opera house which stages ultra-modern productions with a focus on Mozart, the Baroque period and contemporary opera.
7 Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
But how did Beethoven actually hear his music? Putting his increasing deafness to one side for a moment – let’s consider the musical instruments he had at his disposal.
Here at the Hofburg, at the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, you can experience Beethoven’s world of sound first hand. Instruments were developing at a high speed during Beethoven’s days – and these changes had a considerable impact on the sounds they made. Pianos were built very differently to today’s concert grands and had a different sound. Beethoven showed a keen interest in the latest trends. Instrument makers and composers inspired each other. New compositions, new instruments – each depending on the other.
The Hammerklavier which literally means "hammer-keyboard” was the concert grand of Beethoven’s day – two examples are on display here. As well as two wind instruments linked to the composer. Other highlights include a bust of the maestro and two famous Beethoven portraits – one of him as a 12-year-old boy.
At the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments you can even tinkle the ivory yourself – on replicas of the originals. The audio guide also gives you the opportunity to listen to the original sounds of 400 other unusual instruments.
8 Palais Lobkowitz
You are standing in front of the most modern building in the whole of Vienna – well, at least at the time of its finalization in 1687. Back then, a short time after the second siege of Vienna, it was the capital’s first real city palace. The facade must have appeared ultra-modern to people; its slightly protruding middle section having been previously unheard of in Vienna. To this day, the front aspect looks exactly the same as it did back then – only the entrance in the middle is different, thanks to the addition of a grand sweeping portal by Fischer von Erlach, the architect behind Vienna’s Karlskirche church.
In 1745, the Lobkowitz family purchased the property. The Lobkowitz princes enjoyed excellent relations with major composers such as Christoph Willibald Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. And they also commissioned the services of Ludwig van Beethoven. His patron Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz was treated to a highly exclusive premiere when the maestro conducted a private performance of the Third Symphony for his supporter. This symphony is commonly referred to as the Eroica – and it really does sound heroic. The concert took place in 1804 in a brand new concert hall – still every bit as impressive today, it is widely known as the Eroica Saal. When Beethoven took up the baton here, the decor was all but new, as the prince had only converted the grand ballroom into a concert hall five years earlier. It was an investment in his own orchestra, and a luxury that Josef Franz Maximilian Fürst von Lobkowitz could – and wanted to – afford. After all, this was a time long before CDs, mp3s and streaming services, and if audiences wanted to listen to music, then live performances were the only option.
Prince Lobkowitz, a long-standing supporter of Beethoven’s, played the violin and had spent a fortune on music and theater in his lifetime. And he was a co-founder of a very important Viennese musical institution: the Society of The Friends of Music in Vienna – without whom the Musikverein concert hall would never have been built. The prince loved the arts above all else. Too much some might say, since his generosity as a patron drove him to financial ruin.
9 Pasqualati house
You are standing outside one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s favorite residences. The high walls that you can see here behind the Liebenberg memorial are part of the old city walls, which were razed in the nineteenth century. But from here, Beethoven’s gaze could roam free – over the glacis, which was the open ground surrounding the city, towards the towns beyond the city walls and on to the Vienna Woods in the distance. This surviving part of the old city walls is called Mölkerbastei. Beethoven lived in the building on the corner, which is known as the Pasqualati House. His rooms were on the fourth floor, and had beautiful views. The apartment must have had that special something. A notoriously restless soul, Beethoven kept on returning to this particular address between 1804 and 1814. Its owner, Johann Baptist Freiherr von Pasqualati, ensured that it was always free for the composer to use – Beethoven was, after all, a close friend.
Beethoven worked on his opera Fidelio here, as well as several symphonies and a violin concerto. And it was here, too, that the piece which opens up the world of Beethoven’s piano music for so many was composed – Für Elise, a catchy piece which he is thought to have dedicated to Therese von Malfatti. There is evidence suggesting that the over 40-year-old composer was hoping, unsuccessfully, to marry this young woman, who had yet to turn 20.
The precise size and location of his rooms on the fourth floor are not certain. However, the overall ambience of the time is wonderfully brought to life in the rooms of this Beethoven location in the same building. Beethoven’s personal effects are on show, and the old wooden floors creak under visitors’ feet. Today, you no longer look out over the open grounds in front of the old city walls, but at the no less impressive Ringstrasse and the university.
10 Beethoven's Place of Death – Schwarzspanierstraße 15
All that is left to remind us that this is the location of the apartment in which Beethoven died is a commemorative plaque on the wall of the building right next to the Schwarzspanierkirche church. The original building was knocked down at the start of the twentieth century. But with a little imagination we can get a feel for what it must have been like at that fateful time. Beethoven moved here in 1825. Taking up residence in an apartment on the second floor. Spacious, light and with views of the city.
On March 26, 1827 a heavy storm raged over the city. At Schwarzspanierstrasse 15 Beethoven had been in his bed, fighting for his life for two days. Bedridden for months, he was cared for by his good friends. But now he was visibly deteriorating. In the late afternoon of March 26, he died of kidney and liver failure at the age of 56. Two friends who were with him to the end reported:
“At around six o’clock in the afternoon a big thunderstorm broke. A bolt of lightning cracked nearby, the house shook. The dying man sat up and threateningly held his fist aloft. He then fell back. Beethoven was dead."
But what caused his excruciating death? According to recent expert testimony, he actually died of lead poisoning. To this day, the world continues to speculate on the cause of his poisoning. Some put it down to Beethoven’s overindulgence in wine, which was sweetened with lead acetate in his day. Others think it was due to overconsumption of contaminated river fish. Whatever the truth, we know that lead was prescribed as a cure-all in Beethoven’s day and was often added to unctions and disinfectant dressings. An autopsy was performed on Beethoven by his doctor a day after his death – in full accordance with the composer’s wishes. Little of Beethoven’s remains survive to help scientists solve the puzzle of his death once and for all. During his lifetime, Beethoven suffered from various illnesses, but continued to entertain hopes of realizing his many musical plans right up until a short time before his death:
“There is still so much I want to write. Now the Tenth Symphony, and I wanted to compose a requiem, and the music for Faust, and a book of piano studies too...”
And what would this Tenth Symphony that he never wrote have sounded like? Presumably, it would have been shaped by the sufferings of Beethoven’s last months.
11 Beethoven Monument – 19. District
A babbling brook, trees rustling in the wind and the sound of bird call – it was an idyll for Beethoven. This natural paradise was the inspiration behind some of his greatest compositions. Today, you will be particularly close to Beethoven. Follow in his footsteps as you walk along the picturesque trail in front of you.
When the composer visited this idyll in the summer of 1802 he had hit rock bottom, following a brush with burnout. The burden of his work was huge and his money worries were never ending – after all, he was essentially a freelance artist, without fixed employment at a European court like many of the great composers before him. He was under intense psychological pressure and his hearing was getting worse all the time. And he was becoming more and more uncertain in his interactions with others, increasingly unable to understand what they are saying. He attempted to mask this insecurity with gruff dismissiveness. He felt horrified looks directed at him. People started to avoid him. And all he really wanted was recognition. And on top of that lovesickness set his heart racing!
The composer’s doctor sent him here, to the countryside, to Heiligenstadt.
Beethoven liked to take walks beside the Schreiberbach brook. Humming loudly. Gesticulating wildly. Stopping abruptly in his tracks from time to time, an intense expression etched on his face as he captures another musical idea. His behavior was so bizarre that he was even stopped by the local policeman who thought he was a passing vagrant or spy.
The path beside this little stream is today known as the Beethovengang. The dark bust in front of you now – Vienna’s first Beethoven memorial – was erected on this spot in 1863. You are looking at Beethoven in his later years: lost in thoughts, his knitted brows framed by windswept locks.
12 Beethoven Museum
The heat of the city is punishing in summer. Whenever the exhausted Beethoven needed rest, he turned his back on Vienna and came here, to Heiligenstadt. The rural idyll worked like a detox on him – just like it does on others today. The simple, single-story winegrowers’ cottages here on Probusgasse are like something you’d find on a postcard.
As the Romans used to say: a good wine is a gift from the Gods. Emperor Probus was responsible for a crucial stage in the development of winegrowing in the region – which is why this romantic little street is named in his honor. Beethoven loved wine. But that is not the main reason why this particular location is associated with him.
In 1802, Beethoven came to take the cure in Heiligenstadt; the town was a popular spa destination at the time. And just an hour from Vienna by horse-drawn carriage. But it was about much more than just getting away from it all for Beethoven. He hoped to escape the physical and mental illnesses that plagued him – and for his hearing to improve, which had started to deteriorate dramatically.
Beethoven often walked along this street, mostly bound for the woodlands beyond. The two-story house that you are standing in front of used to be a bakery. And in all probability it was where Beethoven stayed in 1802. Today, it is a place of musical pilgrimage and the Beethoven center in Vienna: a major Beethoven museum steeped in the atmosphere of the time. The hand of history touches more than just the idyllic courtyard and the low-ceilinged rooms: it was here that one of the most famous letters in the history of music was written – the Heiligenstadt Testament. A letter in which Beethoven revealed his innermost thoughts. A unique document. Beethoven showed himself to be vulnerable and plagued by self-doubt. It was in this moving missive that the famously grumpy maestro attempted to explain his apparent aversion to other people. No other piece of writing gives a deeper insight into Beethoven's soul.
13 Mayer am Pfarrplatz
Such a pleasant spot! The ideal place for some peace and quiet. Everything is steeped in history. St. Jacob’s is one of the oldest churches outside Vienna’s first district. The adjoining wall shows a map with all the main Beethoven memorial sites in walking distance. To the left is one of the maestro’s most enchanting Heiligenstadt residences. It was here that Beethoven found fresh inspiration in 1817. He would probably still enjoy the place in its present incarnation – as the Mayer am Pfarrplatz winery, which produces top wines from some of Vienna’s best winegrowing locations. You know what they say: life is too short to drink bad wine.
Joseph August Lux includes a Beethoven account of this residence in his 1927 Beethoven biography:
“I think I may have found a place to stay in the summer in Heiligenstadt; the house is in a lovely location on the quiet and sunny Pfarrplatz square, in the middle of which a statue of John the Baptist stands, surrounded by four acacia trees. From the corner of the house St. Florian looks down from a blue background, a wide gateway leads into the courtyard; wild vines grow free like a dense green canopy over the open wooden staircase on the left hand side, via which the basic rooms are reached, whose windows overlook the Danube and Marchfeld in the distance, where Countess Edödy resides at her country estate...”
Beethoven has only a short distance to cover when he wants to get back to work on his music after enjoying his beloved wine, as he accessed his apartment directly from the guest garden. The stairway leading to the first floor at the far left end of the courtyard is still standing today.
14 Beethoven's Grave
Central Cemetery, Group 32A: The geniuses of Viennese classical musical brought together: in the middle a Mozart memorial, Beethoven’s final resting place to the left, and Schubert’s grave to the right. Haydn is the only one missing – he is buried in Eisenstadt. And Mozart’s “real” grave is at the cemetery in St. Marx.
The Central Cemetery was not opened until 1874 – almost sixty years after Beethoven’s death. The rapidly growing city was not only in urgent need of more space for the living.
And to ensure the new burial ground was accepted by locals, it needed a number of famous names. Beethoven and Schubert were exhumed from their original graves in 1888 and reburried at Central Cemetary to much fanfare. Beethoven’s headstone is faithfully modeled on the original at Währing cemetery. Can you decode the mysterious symbolism on the grave itself? We can see a golden lyre that clearly stands for music. But the golden ring? A snake which is biting its tail and coiled around a butterfly. The circle represents eternity, and the snake and the butterfly symbolize resurrection.
Talking of animals: the cemetery is a haven for animals. With any luck you could see deer, hares or hamsters. There certainly is plenty of space: the mortal remains of three million people are buried in this 2.5-square-kilometer cemetery. And if the statisticians have got their sums right, it will not run out of space until the year 4000.
If you still have time, you can go and pay your respects to various other Viennese musical royalty.
Highlights include the members of the Strauss dynasty, as well as Johannes Brahms, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Arnold Schoenberg and Hugo Wolf. And then there are the popular graves of pop stars such as Falco and Udo Jürgens.