July 15, 2025 • 30 mins
After Beethoven died, his secretary published an effusively romantic letter the composer had written to someone identified only as his "Immortal Beloved." Beethoven had a type -- namely: noble, and unavailable. But the true identity of the letter's intended recepient has mystified music historians.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood. A production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener discretion advised in the morning,
my angel, my all, myself, only a few words today,
and indeed with pencil, with yours only tomorrow is my
(00:20):
lodging positively fixed? What a worthless waste of time on such?
Why this deep grief? When necessity speaks? Can our love exist?
But by sacrifices, by not demanding everything? Can you change it?
That you not completely mine? I am not completely yours?
Oh God, look upon beautiful nature and calm your soul
(00:42):
over what must be. Love demands everything and completely with
good reason. So it is for me with you, for
you with me. This is a translation of the opening
of one of the most famous love letters ever written,
which was composed by arguably the most influential romantic composer
(01:06):
who ever lived. You might have heard of him, Ludwig
van Beethoven. Ten small pages hold the trove of passionate
and conflicted feelings that he scribbled one summer in Old
German script, with, as he noted, the very pencil he
borrowed from the intended recipient of his letter. That recipient
(01:31):
is addressed later in his Emotive Outpouring only as his
quote immortal beloved. Beethoven wrote his message to his immortal
beloved in three parts over two days, and there seems
to be no proof that it was ever actually received.
The multi part letter was discovered at Beethoven's estate in
(01:55):
Vienna after his death in eighteen twenty seven, and over
the course of nearly two hundred years it has become
one of the most hotly contested documents in all of
Western music historiography. This is largely thanks to the sheer
number of enticing mysteries that the letter presents. First among them,
(02:21):
who was the immortal beloved Beethoven did not actually ever
use his intended recipient's name. Beethoven was never married, and
by all accounts, he had a fairly disastrous love life. Nevertheless,
there is ample evidence that he became enamored with several
(02:42):
countesses and women of high social status throughout his adulthood,
and by analyzing clues in his personal writing and the
correspondence of others, scholars have put forth multiple compelling candidates
as to who might have inspired such an ardent first
draft of amorous feelings. But maybe Beethoven's music holds the answer.
(03:09):
You've been listening to Beethoven's Piano Sonata at number thirty
in E major, Opus one hundred and nine. Multiple musicologists
and biographers claim that this piece, through both its composition
and dedication, not only highlights a link between the composer's
(03:29):
personal life and his creative work, but might hold the
clues as to the true identity of Beethoven's Immortal Beloved.
I'm Danish Schwartz and this is a very special musical
installment of noble blood. The Immortal Beloved letter did not
(03:54):
initially seem like an enticing mystery. The letter was first
published in eighteen teen, forty after the composer's death, by
Beethoven's former secretary, who claimed that Beethoven wrote it in
eighteen o six to Australian Countess Julieta Gucciardi, a former
piano student of his, while he was taking the waters
(04:17):
at a Hungarian spa quote on account of his gradually
increasing deafness. Besides the part about Beethoven's suffering from hearing
loss and being at a spa, almost none of those
other details.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Would prove to be accurate. The likeliest spa Beethoven was
recuperating at wasn't even a Hungarian one. Beethoven had neither
dated his letter nor specified his location at the time
of writing. As later revised statements revealed, it seemed probable
that Beethoven's secretary had simply guessed at and inserted the
(04:54):
date and made other assumptions. Researchers later pointed out that
by eighteen Ohio, Julietta was married and living in Naples.
As will soon discover, a woman being married might not
have been a total deterrent in terms of Beethoven expressing
heartfelt sentiments. However, Naples was simply too far from any
(05:15):
of the spas that he did visit in the summers
for her to be a plausible candidate. But Julieta, that
former noble piano student, is still an important figure in
Beethoven's history. She is the dedicatee of the song We're
Hearing Now, Beethoven's wildly famous piano sonata number fourteen in
(05:37):
C sharp minor Opus twenty seven, number two that was
originally titled Quasi Una Fantasia. Now it's more popularly known
as his Moonlight Sonata. The next widely proposed immortal beloved
candidate was actually Julietta's cousins. Terrez von Brunswick was from
(06:02):
a noble Hungarian family, and she was also a piano
student of Beethoven's. The fact that Terrez and her siblings
had grown extremely close with their renowned teacher was well established.
The key question was whether there was any romantic connection
between Beethoven and Terrez that could have reached such a
(06:24):
fever pitch. Some of the details present some compelling arguments,
like Beethoven Terres never married. Interestingly, Beethoven kept a favorite
portrait of Terrez at his estate until he died, and then, astonishingly,
in eighteen ninety a published account detailed a secret betrothal
(06:47):
between the two and eighteen oh six case closed well
no that specific account proved to be a forgery. Eventually,
many of Terrez's letters and diary and were found, and
they did reveal several supposed affairs. But regarding Beethoven, although
(07:07):
she wrote about him on several occasions with deep friendly affection,
there was no evidence to claim a strong romantic attraction
from either side. Nevertheless, Beethoven apparently kept in touch with
Therez over the course of multiple decades, and he dedicated
the piece We're listening to now to her, his piano
(07:30):
Sonata in F sharp major Opus seventy eight, composed in
eighteen o nine. Biographers subsequently proposed more countesses and socialites
as immortal beloved possibilities. In the twentieth century, a few
tidbits of speculation even trickled out that the intended recipient
(07:51):
could have been a man. There is perhaps no way
to incontrovertibly rule that out, but virtually all the most
thorough research on Beethoven's life patterns and relationships at the
time points to the addressy of the letter being a
noble or high status woman. The key relationships in question
(08:14):
often originated in teacher, student, and or artist patron dynamics
that then purportedly sparked feelings in Beethoven that grew stronger.
But rather than just focus on his known social circles,
some scholars have focused on the letter itself, trying to
(08:34):
find more clues to discover who its recipient might have been.
One especially critical clue was that Beethoven starts the second
part of his letter quote evening Monday, July sixth by
looking back at years when July sixth fell on a Monday,
(08:54):
and cross checking travel documents and other correspondents the situation
into better focus. It's now widely accepted that Beethoven wrote
to his immortal beloved in eighteen twelve while in the
Spa town of Tepletz in the Austrian Empire. Beethoven also
references his intention to send his letter by post two K,
(09:20):
which historians generally believe he was using as an abbreviation
of Carlsbad, another resort town. These details give a more
precise sense of Beethoven's whereabouts, as well as his artistic
status and internal struggles at the time. To start with
(09:43):
some broader personal and career contexts, eighteen twelve was at
the end of what musicologists later deemed Beethoven's middle or
heroic period, in which his compositions often tended toward a
grand style and innov upon classical forms. Right now, we're
(10:03):
listening to the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony Number eight
in F major Opus ninety three, which he began working
on in the summer of eighteen twelve. Although it didn't
receive glowing acclaim at its premiere, critics, audiences, and other
composers have since extolled the beautiful, witty, and masterful manner
(10:26):
in which it both recalled the works of composers like
Mozart and Hayden and started to shake up certain norms
of symphonic structure. By eighteen twelve, Beethoven had also already
dealt with a myriad of personal obstacles. Early on. His
home life was reportedly dismal due to his parents' contentious
(10:48):
marriage and his father's alcoholism. According to accounts from friends,
Beethoven's amorous advances as a young man never seemed to
come to any sort of satisfying fruition, and then there
was the gradual, life altering loss of his hearing. This
auditory decline likely started in seventeen ninety seven or ninety eight,
(11:13):
and increasingly threatened his ability to conduct performances of his works.
Given that Beethoven also suffered through the excruciating ringing of
tenitis in his ears, as well as other painful and
isolating health problems, doctors often recommended that he spend summers
(11:34):
in resort towns with supposedly healing hot springs. A closer
look at Beethoven's correspondence and some supporting travel documentation allowed
researchers to deduce his travel itinerary through the Austrian Spa
region prior to his writing of The Immortal Beloved Letter.
(11:56):
The specifics almost sound plucked from an Agatha Christy novel
Traveling from Vienna, Beethoven arrived in Prague on July first,
eighteen twelve. Based on a letter he sent to a
friend there and implications in his Immortal Beloved Letter, he
very likely met his beloved for a potentially romantic tryst
(12:20):
in the city on July third, he possibly likely borrowed
a pencil. Then on July fourth, he departed by post
coach and after an arduous journey, arrived at four am
on July fifth in Tepletz. The following morning, he began
writing to his Immortal beloved from his temporary lodgings, thinking
(12:44):
that she would soon arrive in the town of Carlsbad,
where he would send his letters. Using these parameters, a
pair of prominent French scholars and a Japanese author separately
came to the same conclusion about a new possible candidate. Then,
in nineteen seventy two, an American musicologist Furthered those claims
(13:07):
through an extensive investigation of the evidence that included a
couple more prerequisites. One the woman must have been in
both Prague and Carlsbad at the right times, and two,
the woman must have been on great terms with Beethoven
just before the relevant Spa visits to have elicited such
(13:29):
impassioned writing. Ultimately, this narrowed down the list of immortal
beloved candidates and left one plausible name. Antony Brentano was
an Austrian art collector and music patron. Sources clearly show
she was in Prague on July third, and had grown
(13:53):
close to Beethoven in the preceding months. Antony had initially
come to Vienna in eighteen oh nine to care for
her ailing father, and after he died, she oversaw the
auction of his estate in eighteen ten. The connections of
Antony's husband and her husband's half sister to the quote
(14:14):
in crowd of famous artists working in Vienna led the
three to meet Beethoven and befriend him. According to numerous accounts,
including Antony's and those close to her, Beethoven became a
source of great comfort during periods when Antony was mourning
or ill Additionally, as several scholars have argued, Antony fulfilled
(14:39):
an additional parameter. Later in his life, Beethoven spent ample
time with the prominent Giantastio del Rio family. In a
recovered diary that many historiographers take to be trustworthy, a
young woman in the family, Fanny, recorded a conversation in
(15:01):
eighteen sixteen in which Beethoven discussed his fraught love life.
According to Franny's entry, Beethoven lamented that five years prior
he had met someone quote, a closer union with whom
he would have considered as the greatest happiness of his life,
(15:23):
but quote it was not to be thought of, almost
an impossibility a chimera. The approximate timing lined up with
when Beethoven met Antony, and the impossibility was presumably that,
as you probably have noted, she was married. Not only
(15:44):
was Antony married, Beethoven considered her husband, the successful merchant
Franz Bentano, a dear friend. Franz was apparently grateful for
the time Beethoven spent uplifting his wife's spirits with him
his music, and as records show, at times, he even
(16:04):
helped Beethoven financially. Many sources also indicate that after Beethoven's
stay in Templetz, he went on to meet up with
the whole Brentano family to vacation with them in the
resort towns of Carlsbad and Friends and Bad. As Many
scholars contend, this brings up critical questions regarding Antony's candidacy
(16:30):
as the address see of the Immortal Beloved letter. How
intimate was Beethoven's relationship with her If it did veer
into some form of a romantic affair, how can that
be reconciled with his position as a family friend. Beethoven
often wrote of the importance of being virtuous and faithful.
(16:53):
So was he being dishonest and duplicitous in his actions?
How much salacious stuff was going going down in those
Austrian hot springs. While some writers have gone so far
as to claim that Beethoven was the father of the
son that Antony had in March of eighteen thirteen, there
(17:14):
seems to be a lack of substantial evidence to back
that up. Critics of the Antony theory argued that she
was a committed wife and mother, and it was highly
unlikely that she would have entertained such a risky secretive affair.
Beethoven did ultimately dedicate multiple works to Antony, including what
(17:37):
we're currently listening to, thirty three variations on a Waltz
by Diabelli Opus one hundred and twenty, often known now
as the Diabelli Variations. But there's also substantial doubt in
the scholarly community over whether Beethoven was passionately attracted to
(17:58):
Antony in the same way he reportedly was with other women.
This brings up another important quandary. However, momentarily putting aside
candidates and related character assumptions and going back to the
Immortal Beloved letter itself, it's worth questioning whether it was
(18:19):
first and foremost a love letter at all. To be sure,
Beethoven's multipart missive is full of passionate prose. He longs
for his immortal beloved and repeatedly declares his undying love
and devotion to her as her quote, faithful Ludwig. But
(18:43):
he also mentioned travel issues, postal schedules, his place in
the universe, his need to live for himself, and even
to some light questioning of God. His shifting tone and
focus thus makes it inherently possible to enter interpret the
letter in multiple ways, complicating matters. Further, the Immortal Beloved
(19:05):
letter itself has been published in varying formats and has
been translated into several different English versions. Tracking the slight
but meaning altering differences makes it tempting to wonder how
cogent some of our own cryptic email drafts, unsent text messages,
(19:26):
or pained diary entries might seem if repeatedly examined and
retranslated over two centuries. Furthermore, as if analyzing a scribbled
stream of consciousness drafted on Little Sleep that was possibly
never sent nor received was not already a subjective enough task,
(19:48):
many biographers and musicologists largely drew from different pools of
scholarly research. Some of the most significant books and monographs
on this subject were either not translated into English or
not circulated in English speaking countries for decades, if at all.
(20:10):
The theory that Antony Brentano was the Immortal Beloved still
appears to be the most widely accepted one in the
United States, but that's seemingly not the case in Europe.
As will soon get to Dissertations could be written on
all the cultural and political factors, as well as the
(20:31):
gatekeeping that spawned so many divisive theories about immortal beloved
candidates over the years. But at the core of it,
what is so fascinating about the letter is not simply
what Beethoven was potentially trying to say to his immortal beloved,
but what the letter says about Beethoven. Beethoven wrote to
(20:55):
his immortal beloved when he was forty one years old,
and then struggled through a period of depression and diminished
productivity for about five years. Between his anguished words and
forced transposition of his larger life goals, many scholars have
argued that it was far more than a love letter.
(21:19):
This letter was a last stab at an intimate relationship,
as well as something of a tragic realization, a painful
renunciation of what he couldn't have, or perhaps what he
knew he would never have. Beethoven frequently felt the sting
(21:39):
of rejection in his life. He was reportedly rebuffed many
times due to his social class, his physical appearance, and
or his difficult personality. But whether intentionally or subconsciously, perhaps
as a means of self preservation or instinctual drive to
(22:00):
focus on his work, Beethoven also followed certain patterns that
seemingly inhibited him from entering a more traditional marriage, a
long lasting affair, or fulfilling sexual relationship at all. Simply put,
Beethoven had a type. He frequently pursued women who were,
(22:22):
by most accounts, beautiful, appreciated music, and in many cases
took lessons from him, were often younger, and were almost
always unobtainable due to their social standing or marital status.
Did these women's positions and committed relationships somehow make them
(22:43):
more romantically alluring to Beethoven or does that facet reveal
another compelling pattern in his life. According to many sources,
after Beethoven's parents died by the time he was a
young adult, he continually sought to integrate himself into prominent families.
Here again Beethoven's music, biography, and writing converge. Remember the
(23:09):
sonata we heard back in the introduction, The dedicated ee
was not one of the main proposed immortal Beloved candidates,
but the daughter of one. In addition to his affectionate
bonds with Antony and friendz Brentano, Beethoven was reportedly very
fond of their children, particularly young Maximilane, to whom he
(23:34):
dedicated two pieces. One was what we have been listening
to his Allegretto in B flat major for piano trio.
He composed this for her in June eighteen twelve, when
she was ten years old, just before his summer spa trip.
The other was that piano sonata at number thirty. The
(23:54):
sincere dedication that Beethoven wrote to Maximilane by then ninety
is fascinating because it conveys a great deal about how
he apparently viewed some compositions, along with the close relationships
in his life. Let's listen to the first two movements again,
(24:15):
along with a translation of Beethoven's dedication to Maximiliane. A
dedication now. It is not one of those dedications that
are misused by a great many. It is the spirit
that unites the noble and better people on this earth,
and which time can never destroy. That is the spirit
(24:39):
of which I speak to you now, and which makes
me sieve still in your childhood years. Likewise, your beloved parents,
your excellent and gifted mother, your father, inspired by truthful,
good and noble qualities, always thinking about the well being
of his children. When I think on the excellent qualities
(24:59):
of yours parents, I have not the slightest doubt that
you will have been, and are daily inspired to be
a noble imitation of them. Never can the memory of
such a noble family fade in me. May you sometimes
remember me fondly my heartfelt wishes. May Heaven bless you
your life and the lives of those around you, Forever,
(25:23):
affectionately and always your friend Beethoven. As some writers have suggested,
it's possible that dedications like that were veiled ways for
Beethoven to express romantic feelings to married women or mothers
of dedicatees. But as others assert, this type of behavior
(25:45):
and later in life dedication far more likely underscored a
deeper longing for a loving and stable family structure, as
Beethoven so often sought out substitute families. So, in addition
to signaling a crestfallen emotional key change, the Immortal Beloved
(26:07):
letter was perhaps a love letter that actually weighed multiple
types of love, from romantic to familial to self love, and,
according to some maybe even rekindled love. Many of Beethoven's
behavioral patterns, as well as clues and documents that were
(26:28):
revealed more recently, factor into the case for the other
most widely believed immortal beloved candidate. That candidate was from
a noble family, was supposedly exceedingly beautiful, and was incredibly
musically talented. According to that theory, which has been long
(26:51):
backed by certain German and German speaking scholars, it was
not Terrez von Brunswick who made the most sense as
Beethoven's immortal beloved, but her younger sister Josephine, because deep
down she was his only beloved. But more on that
(27:12):
next week. This has been part one of the endlessly
fascinating story of Beethoven's famous immortal Beloved. But stick around
after a brief sponsor break to hear a few measures
of another music related mystery. Baroness Terrees Malfati was another
(27:44):
candidate who historians more or less ruled out as the
enigmatic immortal beloved. Beethoven did supposedly propose to her in
eighteen ten, though, and she factors into another mystery. According
to many sources, Beethoven, and exceedingly well known for Elease Bagatelle,
which we are of course hearing now, was likely written
(28:07):
for her between eighteen oh eight and eighteen ten. The
piece was only discovered and published forty years after Beethoven's death,
and while multiple Elise candidates have been proposed, one of
the main theories about the dedication was that it was
initially misread and had actually been written for Terres. As
(28:33):
many scholars note, Beethoven had notoriously sloppy handwriting, which is
yet another reason why the mission to identify the intended
recipients of some of his works of both romantic music
and affectionate prose continues to be so immortally befuddling. This
(28:54):
episode was written by Paul Jeffy. Special thanks to doctor
Jane vile Jaffe and doctor William Meredith, who were both
incredibly helpful resources in the writing of this episode. One
final note for this episode, our producers for the show
found most of the Beethoven music we got to listen
(29:15):
to for this special musical two parter from musopen dot org,
a free website and nonprofit that provides access to classical
music recordings and sheet music and other educational material. If
you're interested in hearing more Beethoven, absolutely go check the
site out. Nobel Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and
(29:47):
Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted
by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by
Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani.
The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
supervising producer rima il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke,
(30:09):
Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood. A production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener discretion advised in the morning,
my angel, my all, myself, only a few words today,
and indeed with pencil, with yours only tomorrow is my
(00:20):
lodging positively fixed? What a worthless waste of time on such?
Why this deep grief? When necessity speaks? Can our love exist?
But by sacrifices, by not demanding everything? Can you change it?
That you not completely mine? I am not completely yours?
Oh God, look upon beautiful nature and calm your soul
(00:42):
over what must be. Love demands everything and completely with
good reason. So it is for me with you, for
you with me. This is a translation of the opening
of one of the most famous love letters ever written,
which was composed by arguably the most influential romantic composer
(01:06):
who ever lived. You might have heard of him, Ludwig
van Beethoven. Ten small pages hold the trove of passionate
and conflicted feelings that he scribbled one summer in Old
German script, with, as he noted, the very pencil he
borrowed from the intended recipient of his letter. That recipient
(01:31):
is addressed later in his Emotive Outpouring only as his
quote immortal beloved. Beethoven wrote his message to his immortal
beloved in three parts over two days, and there seems
to be no proof that it was ever actually received.
The multi part letter was discovered at Beethoven's estate in
(01:55):
Vienna after his death in eighteen twenty seven, and over
the course of nearly two hundred years it has become
one of the most hotly contested documents in all of
Western music historiography. This is largely thanks to the sheer
number of enticing mysteries that the letter presents. First among them,
(02:21):
who was the immortal beloved Beethoven did not actually ever
use his intended recipient's name. Beethoven was never married, and
by all accounts, he had a fairly disastrous love life. Nevertheless,
there is ample evidence that he became enamored with several
(02:42):
countesses and women of high social status throughout his adulthood,
and by analyzing clues in his personal writing and the
correspondence of others, scholars have put forth multiple compelling candidates
as to who might have inspired such an ardent first
draft of amorous feelings. But maybe Beethoven's music holds the answer.
(03:09):
You've been listening to Beethoven's Piano Sonata at number thirty
in E major, Opus one hundred and nine. Multiple musicologists
and biographers claim that this piece, through both its composition
and dedication, not only highlights a link between the composer's
(03:29):
personal life and his creative work, but might hold the
clues as to the true identity of Beethoven's Immortal Beloved.
I'm Danish Schwartz and this is a very special musical
installment of noble blood. The Immortal Beloved letter did not
(03:54):
initially seem like an enticing mystery. The letter was first
published in eighteen teen, forty after the composer's death, by
Beethoven's former secretary, who claimed that Beethoven wrote it in
eighteen o six to Australian Countess Julieta Gucciardi, a former
piano student of his, while he was taking the waters
(04:17):
at a Hungarian spa quote on account of his gradually
increasing deafness. Besides the part about Beethoven's suffering from hearing
loss and being at a spa, almost none of those
other details.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Would prove to be accurate. The likeliest spa Beethoven was
recuperating at wasn't even a Hungarian one. Beethoven had neither
dated his letter nor specified his location at the time
of writing. As later revised statements revealed, it seemed probable
that Beethoven's secretary had simply guessed at and inserted the
(04:54):
date and made other assumptions. Researchers later pointed out that
by eighteen Ohio, Julietta was married and living in Naples.
As will soon discover, a woman being married might not
have been a total deterrent in terms of Beethoven expressing
heartfelt sentiments. However, Naples was simply too far from any
(05:15):
of the spas that he did visit in the summers
for her to be a plausible candidate. But Julieta, that
former noble piano student, is still an important figure in
Beethoven's history. She is the dedicatee of the song We're
Hearing Now, Beethoven's wildly famous piano sonata number fourteen in
(05:37):
C sharp minor Opus twenty seven, number two that was
originally titled Quasi Una Fantasia. Now it's more popularly known
as his Moonlight Sonata. The next widely proposed immortal beloved
candidate was actually Julietta's cousins. Terrez von Brunswick was from
(06:02):
a noble Hungarian family, and she was also a piano
student of Beethoven's. The fact that Terrez and her siblings
had grown extremely close with their renowned teacher was well established.
The key question was whether there was any romantic connection
between Beethoven and Terrez that could have reached such a
(06:24):
fever pitch. Some of the details present some compelling arguments,
like Beethoven Terres never married. Interestingly, Beethoven kept a favorite
portrait of Terrez at his estate until he died, and then, astonishingly,
in eighteen ninety a published account detailed a secret betrothal
(06:47):
between the two and eighteen oh six case closed well
no that specific account proved to be a forgery. Eventually,
many of Terrez's letters and diary and were found, and
they did reveal several supposed affairs. But regarding Beethoven, although
(07:07):
she wrote about him on several occasions with deep friendly affection,
there was no evidence to claim a strong romantic attraction
from either side. Nevertheless, Beethoven apparently kept in touch with
Therez over the course of multiple decades, and he dedicated
the piece We're listening to now to her, his piano
(07:30):
Sonata in F sharp major Opus seventy eight, composed in
eighteen o nine. Biographers subsequently proposed more countesses and socialites
as immortal beloved possibilities. In the twentieth century, a few
tidbits of speculation even trickled out that the intended recipient
(07:51):
could have been a man. There is perhaps no way
to incontrovertibly rule that out, but virtually all the most
thorough research on Beethoven's life patterns and relationships at the
time points to the addressy of the letter being a
noble or high status woman. The key relationships in question
(08:14):
often originated in teacher, student, and or artist patron dynamics
that then purportedly sparked feelings in Beethoven that grew stronger.
But rather than just focus on his known social circles,
some scholars have focused on the letter itself, trying to
(08:34):
find more clues to discover who its recipient might have been.
One especially critical clue was that Beethoven starts the second
part of his letter quote evening Monday, July sixth by
looking back at years when July sixth fell on a Monday,
(08:54):
and cross checking travel documents and other correspondents the situation
into better focus. It's now widely accepted that Beethoven wrote
to his immortal beloved in eighteen twelve while in the
Spa town of Tepletz in the Austrian Empire. Beethoven also
references his intention to send his letter by post two K,
(09:20):
which historians generally believe he was using as an abbreviation
of Carlsbad, another resort town. These details give a more
precise sense of Beethoven's whereabouts, as well as his artistic
status and internal struggles at the time. To start with
(09:43):
some broader personal and career contexts, eighteen twelve was at
the end of what musicologists later deemed Beethoven's middle or
heroic period, in which his compositions often tended toward a
grand style and innov upon classical forms. Right now, we're
(10:03):
listening to the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony Number eight
in F major Opus ninety three, which he began working
on in the summer of eighteen twelve. Although it didn't
receive glowing acclaim at its premiere, critics, audiences, and other
composers have since extolled the beautiful, witty, and masterful manner
(10:26):
in which it both recalled the works of composers like
Mozart and Hayden and started to shake up certain norms
of symphonic structure. By eighteen twelve, Beethoven had also already
dealt with a myriad of personal obstacles. Early on. His
home life was reportedly dismal due to his parents' contentious
(10:48):
marriage and his father's alcoholism. According to accounts from friends,
Beethoven's amorous advances as a young man never seemed to
come to any sort of satisfying fruition, and then there
was the gradual, life altering loss of his hearing. This
auditory decline likely started in seventeen ninety seven or ninety eight,
(11:13):
and increasingly threatened his ability to conduct performances of his works.
Given that Beethoven also suffered through the excruciating ringing of
tenitis in his ears, as well as other painful and
isolating health problems, doctors often recommended that he spend summers
(11:34):
in resort towns with supposedly healing hot springs. A closer
look at Beethoven's correspondence and some supporting travel documentation allowed
researchers to deduce his travel itinerary through the Austrian Spa
region prior to his writing of The Immortal Beloved Letter.
(11:56):
The specifics almost sound plucked from an Agatha Christy novel
Traveling from Vienna, Beethoven arrived in Prague on July first,
eighteen twelve. Based on a letter he sent to a
friend there and implications in his Immortal Beloved Letter, he
very likely met his beloved for a potentially romantic tryst
(12:20):
in the city on July third, he possibly likely borrowed
a pencil. Then on July fourth, he departed by post
coach and after an arduous journey, arrived at four am
on July fifth in Tepletz. The following morning, he began
writing to his Immortal beloved from his temporary lodgings, thinking
(12:44):
that she would soon arrive in the town of Carlsbad,
where he would send his letters. Using these parameters, a
pair of prominent French scholars and a Japanese author separately
came to the same conclusion about a new possible candidate. Then,
in nineteen seventy two, an American musicologist Furthered those claims
(13:07):
through an extensive investigation of the evidence that included a
couple more prerequisites. One the woman must have been in
both Prague and Carlsbad at the right times, and two,
the woman must have been on great terms with Beethoven
just before the relevant Spa visits to have elicited such
(13:29):
impassioned writing. Ultimately, this narrowed down the list of immortal
beloved candidates and left one plausible name. Antony Brentano was
an Austrian art collector and music patron. Sources clearly show
she was in Prague on July third, and had grown
(13:53):
close to Beethoven in the preceding months. Antony had initially
come to Vienna in eighteen oh nine to care for
her ailing father, and after he died, she oversaw the
auction of his estate in eighteen ten. The connections of
Antony's husband and her husband's half sister to the quote
(14:14):
in crowd of famous artists working in Vienna led the
three to meet Beethoven and befriend him. According to numerous accounts,
including Antony's and those close to her, Beethoven became a
source of great comfort during periods when Antony was mourning
or ill Additionally, as several scholars have argued, Antony fulfilled
(14:39):
an additional parameter. Later in his life, Beethoven spent ample
time with the prominent Giantastio del Rio family. In a
recovered diary that many historiographers take to be trustworthy, a
young woman in the family, Fanny, recorded a conversation in
(15:01):
eighteen sixteen in which Beethoven discussed his fraught love life.
According to Franny's entry, Beethoven lamented that five years prior
he had met someone quote, a closer union with whom
he would have considered as the greatest happiness of his life,
(15:23):
but quote it was not to be thought of, almost
an impossibility a chimera. The approximate timing lined up with
when Beethoven met Antony, and the impossibility was presumably that,
as you probably have noted, she was married. Not only
(15:44):
was Antony married, Beethoven considered her husband, the successful merchant
Franz Bentano, a dear friend. Franz was apparently grateful for
the time Beethoven spent uplifting his wife's spirits with him
his music, and as records show, at times, he even
(16:04):
helped Beethoven financially. Many sources also indicate that after Beethoven's
stay in Templetz, he went on to meet up with
the whole Brentano family to vacation with them in the
resort towns of Carlsbad and Friends and Bad. As Many
scholars contend, this brings up critical questions regarding Antony's candidacy
(16:30):
as the address see of the Immortal Beloved letter. How
intimate was Beethoven's relationship with her If it did veer
into some form of a romantic affair, how can that
be reconciled with his position as a family friend. Beethoven
often wrote of the importance of being virtuous and faithful.
(16:53):
So was he being dishonest and duplicitous in his actions?
How much salacious stuff was going going down in those
Austrian hot springs. While some writers have gone so far
as to claim that Beethoven was the father of the
son that Antony had in March of eighteen thirteen, there
(17:14):
seems to be a lack of substantial evidence to back
that up. Critics of the Antony theory argued that she
was a committed wife and mother, and it was highly
unlikely that she would have entertained such a risky secretive affair.
Beethoven did ultimately dedicate multiple works to Antony, including what
(17:37):
we're currently listening to, thirty three variations on a Waltz
by Diabelli Opus one hundred and twenty, often known now
as the Diabelli Variations. But there's also substantial doubt in
the scholarly community over whether Beethoven was passionately attracted to
(17:58):
Antony in the same way he reportedly was with other women.
This brings up another important quandary. However, momentarily putting aside
candidates and related character assumptions and going back to the
Immortal Beloved letter itself, it's worth questioning whether it was
(18:19):
first and foremost a love letter at all. To be sure,
Beethoven's multipart missive is full of passionate prose. He longs
for his immortal beloved and repeatedly declares his undying love
and devotion to her as her quote, faithful Ludwig. But
(18:43):
he also mentioned travel issues, postal schedules, his place in
the universe, his need to live for himself, and even
to some light questioning of God. His shifting tone and
focus thus makes it inherently possible to enter interpret the
letter in multiple ways, complicating matters. Further, the Immortal Beloved
(19:05):
letter itself has been published in varying formats and has
been translated into several different English versions. Tracking the slight
but meaning altering differences makes it tempting to wonder how
cogent some of our own cryptic email drafts, unsent text messages,
(19:26):
or pained diary entries might seem if repeatedly examined and
retranslated over two centuries. Furthermore, as if analyzing a scribbled
stream of consciousness drafted on Little Sleep that was possibly
never sent nor received was not already a subjective enough task,
(19:48):
many biographers and musicologists largely drew from different pools of
scholarly research. Some of the most significant books and monographs
on this subject were either not translated into English or
not circulated in English speaking countries for decades, if at all.
(20:10):
The theory that Antony Brentano was the Immortal Beloved still
appears to be the most widely accepted one in the
United States, but that's seemingly not the case in Europe.
As will soon get to Dissertations could be written on
all the cultural and political factors, as well as the
(20:31):
gatekeeping that spawned so many divisive theories about immortal beloved
candidates over the years. But at the core of it,
what is so fascinating about the letter is not simply
what Beethoven was potentially trying to say to his immortal beloved,
but what the letter says about Beethoven. Beethoven wrote to
(20:55):
his immortal beloved when he was forty one years old,
and then struggled through a period of depression and diminished
productivity for about five years. Between his anguished words and
forced transposition of his larger life goals, many scholars have
argued that it was far more than a love letter.
(21:19):
This letter was a last stab at an intimate relationship,
as well as something of a tragic realization, a painful
renunciation of what he couldn't have, or perhaps what he
knew he would never have. Beethoven frequently felt the sting
(21:39):
of rejection in his life. He was reportedly rebuffed many
times due to his social class, his physical appearance, and
or his difficult personality. But whether intentionally or subconsciously, perhaps
as a means of self preservation or instinctual drive to
(22:00):
focus on his work, Beethoven also followed certain patterns that
seemingly inhibited him from entering a more traditional marriage, a
long lasting affair, or fulfilling sexual relationship at all. Simply put,
Beethoven had a type. He frequently pursued women who were,
(22:22):
by most accounts, beautiful, appreciated music, and in many cases
took lessons from him, were often younger, and were almost
always unobtainable due to their social standing or marital status.
Did these women's positions and committed relationships somehow make them
(22:43):
more romantically alluring to Beethoven or does that facet reveal
another compelling pattern in his life. According to many sources,
after Beethoven's parents died by the time he was a
young adult, he continually sought to integrate himself into prominent families.
Here again Beethoven's music, biography, and writing converge. Remember the
(23:09):
sonata we heard back in the introduction, The dedicated ee
was not one of the main proposed immortal Beloved candidates,
but the daughter of one. In addition to his affectionate
bonds with Antony and friendz Brentano, Beethoven was reportedly very
fond of their children, particularly young Maximilane, to whom he
(23:34):
dedicated two pieces. One was what we have been listening
to his Allegretto in B flat major for piano trio.
He composed this for her in June eighteen twelve, when
she was ten years old, just before his summer spa trip.
The other was that piano sonata at number thirty. The
(23:54):
sincere dedication that Beethoven wrote to Maximilane by then ninety
is fascinating because it conveys a great deal about how
he apparently viewed some compositions, along with the close relationships
in his life. Let's listen to the first two movements again,
(24:15):
along with a translation of Beethoven's dedication to Maximiliane. A
dedication now. It is not one of those dedications that
are misused by a great many. It is the spirit
that unites the noble and better people on this earth,
and which time can never destroy. That is the spirit
(24:39):
of which I speak to you now, and which makes
me sieve still in your childhood years. Likewise, your beloved parents,
your excellent and gifted mother, your father, inspired by truthful,
good and noble qualities, always thinking about the well being
of his children. When I think on the excellent qualities
(24:59):
of yours parents, I have not the slightest doubt that
you will have been, and are daily inspired to be
a noble imitation of them. Never can the memory of
such a noble family fade in me. May you sometimes
remember me fondly my heartfelt wishes. May Heaven bless you
your life and the lives of those around you, Forever,
(25:23):
affectionately and always your friend Beethoven. As some writers have suggested,
it's possible that dedications like that were veiled ways for
Beethoven to express romantic feelings to married women or mothers
of dedicatees. But as others assert, this type of behavior
(25:45):
and later in life dedication far more likely underscored a
deeper longing for a loving and stable family structure, as
Beethoven so often sought out substitute families. So, in addition
to signaling a crestfallen emotional key change, the Immortal Beloved
(26:07):
letter was perhaps a love letter that actually weighed multiple
types of love, from romantic to familial to self love, and,
according to some maybe even rekindled love. Many of Beethoven's
behavioral patterns, as well as clues and documents that were
(26:28):
revealed more recently, factor into the case for the other
most widely believed immortal beloved candidate. That candidate was from
a noble family, was supposedly exceedingly beautiful, and was incredibly
musically talented. According to that theory, which has been long
(26:51):
backed by certain German and German speaking scholars, it was
not Terrez von Brunswick who made the most sense as
Beethoven's immortal beloved, but her younger sister Josephine, because deep
down she was his only beloved. But more on that
(27:12):
next week. This has been part one of the endlessly
fascinating story of Beethoven's famous immortal Beloved. But stick around
after a brief sponsor break to hear a few measures
of another music related mystery. Baroness Terrees Malfati was another
(27:44):
candidate who historians more or less ruled out as the
enigmatic immortal beloved. Beethoven did supposedly propose to her in
eighteen ten, though, and she factors into another mystery. According
to many sources, Beethoven, and exceedingly well known for Elease Bagatelle,
which we are of course hearing now, was likely written
(28:07):
for her between eighteen oh eight and eighteen ten. The
piece was only discovered and published forty years after Beethoven's death,
and while multiple Elise candidates have been proposed, one of
the main theories about the dedication was that it was
initially misread and had actually been written for Terres. As
(28:33):
many scholars note, Beethoven had notoriously sloppy handwriting, which is
yet another reason why the mission to identify the intended
recipients of some of his works of both romantic music
and affectionate prose continues to be so immortally befuddling. This
(28:54):
episode was written by Paul Jeffy. Special thanks to doctor
Jane vile Jaffe and doctor William Meredith, who were both
incredibly helpful resources in the writing of this episode. One
final note for this episode, our producers for the show
found most of the Beethoven music we got to listen
(29:15):
to for this special musical two parter from musopen dot org,
a free website and nonprofit that provides access to classical
music recordings and sheet music and other educational material. If
you're interested in hearing more Beethoven, absolutely go check the
site out. Nobel Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and
(29:47):
Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted
by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by
Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani.
The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
supervising producer rima il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke,
(30:09):
Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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