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