The 1809 occupation of Vienna by the French army brought about shortages, inflation, punitive taxes, and other hardships. “Yet who can feel anxious about himself seeing that at the present moment he is sharing the fate of so many millions?” Beethoven wrote on 26 May 1809.
During the summer of 1809, Beethoven was visited by a French envoy, the Baron de Trémont, whose description of Beethoven’s dwellings has become legendary:
“Picture to yourself the dirtiest, most disorderly place imaginable — blotches of moisture covering the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied pot de nuit [chamber pot]; beside it, a small walnut table accustomed to the frequent overturning of the secretary placed upon it; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink, compared wherewith the proverbial tavern-pens would shine; then more music. The chairs, mostly cane-seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last nights’s supper, and with wearing apparel, etc.” (“Beethoven: Impressions by his Contemporaries,” p. 70)
On 26 July 1809, Beethoven wrote his publisher:
“You are indeed mistaken in supposing that I have been very well. For in the meantime we have been suffering misery in a most concentrated form. Let me tell you that since May 4th I have produced very little coherent work, at most a fragment here and there. The whole course of events has in my case affected both body and soul. I cannot yet give myself up to the enjoyment of country life which is so indispensable to me … What a destructive, disorderly life I see and hear around me, nothing but drums, cannons, and human misery in every form —” (Beethoven Letters No. 220)
Rather than composing major works during May, June, and July in 1809, Beethoven seems to have prepared material for future composition lessons for Archduke Rudolph. Barry Cooper believes that Beethoven also wrote out cadenzas for his piano concertos during this summer.
It’s likely that during the summer of 1809, Beethoven also composed two cadenzas for Mozart’s great Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466. Judging from YouTube performance videos, Beethoven’s first-movement cadenza is more popular than his third-movement cadenza.
#Beethoven250 Day 217
Cadenzas for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 (WoO 58), c. 1809
This video is in bad shape, but Murray Perahia plays the first Beethoven cadenza beginning at 11:47 and the second at 30:26.