Antonie Brentano

Antonie Brentano, portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler , 1808

The Birkenstock-Brentano-Haus in Vienna, at that time Landstrasse 98, today Erdberggasse No. 19, photo, around 1900. In the octagonal, wood-paneled tower there was a small observatory

Antonie Brentano (born May 28, 1780 in Vienna , † May 12, 1869 in Frankfurt am Main ; born Johanna Antonia Josepha Edle von Birkenstock, called Toni) was one of the central women in the life of Ludwig van Beethoven . A number of musicologists consider her the legendary " Immortal Beloved ", to whom Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his famous three-part "Letter to the Immortal Beloved" in the summer of 1812. Definitive proof of this hypothesis has not yet been provided.

Life

Antonie was the daughter of the Austrian diplomat, civil servant and art collector Johann Melchior Edler von Birkenstock (1738–1809) and his wife Josefa von Hay (* 1755 in Fulnek / Bohemia; † May 18, 1788 in Vienna ). She had three siblings, the latter two of whom died early:

• Hugo Konrad Gottfried von Birkenstock (born December 15, 1778 in Vienna, † April 10, 1825 in Ybbs on the Danube ), kk first lieutenant in the Weydenfeld infantry
• Karoline Viktoria von Birkenstock (* and † 1782 in Frankfurt)
• Johann Eduard Valentin von Birkenstock (* and † 1784 in Frankfurt)

The father was imperial councilor and confidante of the Empress Maria Theresa and the reform emperor Joseph II. Through his marriage he became brother-in-law of Joseph von Sonnenfels , known as the recipient of Beethoven's piano sonata in D major op. 28 (1802). Both wives were sisters of the famous reform bishop of Königgrätz, Jan Leopold Ritter von Hay (1735–1794). From 1782, Birkenstock lived with his family in Frankfurt am Main for a long time, where his wife gave birth to their two children, Karoline and Johann. It is possible that he already met the Brentano family at that time. In Vienna, he built a palatial villa with 40 rooms in the suburb of Landstrasse, Erdberggasse 98 (today's location Erdbergstrasse 19), which he furnished with an extensive, valuable library and a rich art collection. At the age of eight, Antonie lost her mother to an epidemic and was then sent to the Ursuline convent school in Pressburg for seven years . The father then looked for a so-called good match for his daughter and found it in the person of the wealthy Frankfurt merchant Franz Brentano , the half-brother of the siblings Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim . Sophie Brentano , who died early and was living in Vienna at the time, is said to have played an important role in mediating the marriage . The marriage of 18-year-old Antonie with 33-year-old Brentano took place on July 23, 1798 in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. A few days later the couple moved to Frankfurt. Antonie gave birth to six children:

• Mathilde (born July 3, 1799 in Frankfurt am Main; † April 5, 1800 ibid)
• Georg Franz Melchior (born January 13, 1801 in Frankfurt am Main; † March 1, 1853 ibid), married Lilla Pfeifer (1813–1868), a sister of the Cologne industrialist ( Pfeifer & Langen ) Emil Pfeifer , on January 5, 1835 . The couple had seven children.
• Maximiliane Euphrosine Kunigunde (born November 8, 1802 in Frankfurt am Main; † September 1, 1861 Brunnen / Switzerland), married Landolin Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Blittersdorf (1792–1861) on December 30, 1825
• Josefa Ludovica (born June 29, 1804 in Frankfurt am Main; † February 2, 1875 ibid), married Anton Theodor Brentano-Tozza (1809–1895) on May 28, 1832
• Franziska Elisabeth, called Fanny (born June 26, 1806 in Frankfurt am Main; † October 16, 1837 ibid)
• Karl Joseph (* March 8, 1813 in Frankfurt am Main; † May 18, 1850 ibid)

In August 1809 Antonie returned to Vienna to look after her sick father, who died on October 30th of the same year. After his death, she stayed in her hometown for three years, with her husband rarely visiting her. As sole heir, Antonie was entrusted with cataloging and selling her father's extensive library (7,012 books and music) and his art collection (551 paintings, 261 drawings and thousands of copper engravings, miniatures, bronze statues, sculptures, etc.). She brought some of the assets to Frankfurt in advance, while Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen acquired another for what is now the Albertina in Vienna. It was not until 1832 that Antonie sold the now empty villa to a pharmacist named Josef Gerold and his wife Wilhelmine Edle von Petz. In the history of the city, the lost palace is still called the Birkenstock or Brentano House. The most valuable picture from her collection of paintings was The Lamentation of Christ by the Flemish painter Anthonis van Dyck from 1627, which Antonie bequeathed to Frankfurt Cathedral in 1852 .

In her nearly ninety years, Antonie Brentano survived many friends and relatives, including her husband and five of her six children. When she found out about the death of Ludwig van Beethoven , she began to write the names of her deceased friends on a list that at the end of her own life comprised several pages. The first entry read: “Beethoven, March 26th 1827”.

Beethoven's “Immortal Beloved”?

→ Main article : Immortal Beloved

Beethoven met Antonie Brentano at the end of May 1810 through her sister-in-law Bettina von Arnim . A deep friendship developed between the two, in her diary Antonie speaks of an "elective affinity". On March 11, 1811, she wrote to Bettina that Beethoven had become “one of her dearest people” and that she visited her “almost every day”. The same letter says that she hadn't seen her husband for six months. The following year, she had Beethoven give her the original manuscript of his song An die Geliebte ( WoO 140), which he had composed in December 1811 and written to the Bavarian singer Regina Lang in the studbook. She noted on it: “I requested March 2, 1812 from the author”. Some scholars consider this to be an important indicator that Antonie was actually Beethoven's lover.

Beethoven wrote the letter to the “Immortal Beloved” shortly afterwards, on 6/7. July 1812 in Teplitz , to a woman in “K.” The hypothesis that the addressee could have been Antonie Brentano was first considered in 1955 by Jean and Brigitte Massin: “The assumption that it could have been Antonie Brentano is seductive and absurd at the same time. ”In 1972 Maynard Solomon took up the hypothesis again. As the Beethoven researcher Max Unger was able to prove, “K.” means Karlsbad . The letter also shows that Beethoven had unexpectedly met the enigmatic woman shortly before, on the evening of July 3, in Prague . Solomon was able to prove that Antonie actually arrived in Prague on July 3rd - coming from Vienna - where she stayed at the Hotel Rotes Haus at Jesuitengasse 147 (today Karlova ulice 44) in order to travel on the next morning to Karlovy Vary. Solomon's considerations built on earlier work by George Marek and Harry Goldschmidt . His hypothesis for the identification of the unknown was subsequently adopted by numerous Beethoven researchers and was supported by other sources, which are particularly contained in an extensive essay by Klaus Martin Kopitz , which appeared in 2001.

At the end of July Beethoven traveled from Teplitz to the Brentanos in Karlsbad , where he moved into a room in the same guesthouse Zum Auge Gottes (later Grandhotel Pupp ). He then traveled with them to Franzensbad , where he and the Brentanos also lived in the same hotel. After that, they seem to have separated forever. In November Antonie returned to Frankfurt with her family. In the years that followed, both were linked by intensive correspondence. In 1819 Antonie campaigned for the education of Beethoven's nephew with the famous theologian and pedagogue Johann Michael Sailer , with whom the Brentanos were close friends. The famous Beethoven portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler was commissioned by Antonie Brentano in 1820 . In a sense, she also became immortal as the recipient of several of the composer's great works.

One of the arguments against Solomon's thesis is that Beethoven was friends with Antonie's husband in later years, who often gave him financial support. Some authors also believe that Beethoven was an avowed opponent of marital infidelity and refer to the letter of apology that Beethoven wrote to Paul Bigot de Morogues on March 6, 1807, after he had invited his wife, the pianist Marie Bigot , for a drive. It says that it was "one of my first principles never to be in anything other than friendship with someone else's wife".

The English author Susan Lund takes the view that Karl Joseph Brentano, conceived in May / June 1812, was Beethoven's son. He was born on March 8, 1813 in Frankfurt am Main and suffered from a severe physical and mental handicap, the consequences of which he died on May 18, 1850. His grave is in the Brentano family crypt (crypt 48) in the Frankfurt main cemetery , where other members of the Brentano family also found their final resting place.

The letter to the immortal beloved was found in a secret compartment after Beethoven's death, so it was either never sent or returned to him by the recipient. As further candidates for the "Immortal Beloved" in the course of the now more than hundred-year-old scientific controversy u. a. discussed the following women: the countesses Giulietta Guicciardi , Therese Brunsvik , her younger sister Josephine Brunsvik and Dorothea von Ertmann . After the elimination process carried out by Harry Goldschmidt in 1977, of these candidates, apart from Antonie Brentano, only Josephine Brunsvik remained.

Beethoven's dedications for Antonie Brentano

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , entry in Antonie Brentano's register, January 1, 1815, Frankfurt am Main , Free German Hochstift

As early as October 1811, Beethoven noted on a printed copy of his Goethe-Lieder op. 83: "To my excellent friend of Frau Toni Brentano's Gebohrene noble von Birkenstock from the author." A similar inscription can be found that same month on a copy of the piano reduction of the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, op.85 .

The composer later dedicated two of his most important works to his girlfriend: the English publication of the last piano sonata in C minor, Op. 111 (1822) and the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (1823).

He also wrote the piano trio in B flat major WoO 39 (1812) for her daughter Maximiliane and dedicated the piano sonata in E major op. 109 (1821) to it. Originally Beethoven wanted to dedicate all three last piano sonatas (op. 109, 110 and 111) to Antonie Brentano. He did not dedicate any work to her husband.

In 2018 a hitherto unknown copy of the first print of the full score of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major op.92, which the composer composed in 1811/12 and completed on May 13, 1812, was discovered. The score was published in November 1816 by SA Steiner & Comp. in Vienna. The title page bears the personal dedication: "To my highly esteemed friend Antonie Brentano von Beethoven". The valuable print was acquired by the Beethoven Center at San José State University in the USA .

Brentano String Quartet

The American Brentano String Quartet was named after Antonie Brentano. It was founded in 1992 at the Juilliard School in New York City . The ensemble achieved international attention with the soundtrack to the film Saiten des Lebens (2012) with Philip Seymour Hoffman , Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener .

literature

• Andreas Niedermayer , Mrs. Schöff Johanna Antonia Brentano. A picture of life , Frankfurt 1869 ( digitized version )
• Goethe's correspondence with Antonie Brentano 1814–1821 , ed. by Rudolf Jung, Weimar 1896 ( digitized version )
• Max Unger , In the footsteps of Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved" , Langensalza 1911 ( digitized version )
• Hermine Cloeter , The Brentano House in Vienna. In: this., Between yesterday and today. Walks through Vienna and the Vienna Woods , Vienna 1918, pp. 148–162
• Oscar Sonneck : The Riddle of the Immortal Beloved , New York 1927
• Peter Anton von Brentano di Tremezzo, Brentano tribe rows with an outline of the family history , Bad Reichenhall 1933
• Maria Andrea Goldmann, Antonia Brentano, the wife Schöff. In: dies., In the shadow of the Imperial Cathedral. Frauenbilder , Limburg 1938, pp. 69–163
• Jean & Brigitte Massin, Ludwig van Beethoven , Paris 1955 (2nd edition 1967, as a German translation 1970 under the title: Beethoven. Material biography, data on the work and essay , Munich)
• Maynard Solomon , New light on Beethoven's letter to an unknown woman. In: The Musical Quarterly , Vol. 58 (1972), pp. 572-587
• Gerda Brosche-Graeser, Beethoven's immortal lover. Legends, assumptions, facts , Munich, Amalthea Verlag, 1974
• Harry Goldschmidt , To the Immortal Beloved. An inventory , Leipzig, Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1977
• Maynard Solomon, Beethoven , New York 1977, pp. 158-189; 2nd, revised edition 1998, pp. 207-246
• Franz Carl Hartmann, Franz and Antonia Brentano. The Frankfurt Friends of Ludwig van Beethoven , Frankfurt 1982, 2nd edition 1987
• Marie-Elisabeth Tellenbach , Beethoven and his “Immortal Beloved” Josephine Brunswick. Your fate and the influence on Beethoven's work , Zurich, Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 1983, ISBN 3-254-00095-1
• Wilhelm Storek, The Brentano House in Winkel. History and stories about an old house in the Rheingau , Neuwied 1985
• Maynard Solomon, Antonie Brentano and Beethoven. In: ders., Beethoven Essays, Cambridge 1988, pp. 166-189
• Susan Lund, Beethoven: a true “fleshly father” ?. In: Beethoven Newsletter , Vol. 3 (1988), No. 1, pp. 6-11 and No. 2, pp. 36-40
• Susan Lund, “If one has only one son”: postscript to “Beethoven as a father”. In: Beethoven Newsletter , Vol. 6 (1991), No. 1, pp. 18-21
• Susan Lund, Raptus: a novel about Beethoven based on the source material; annotated, with introductory articles , Herts, Melstamps (Cambs), 1995
• Susan Lund, The visit that Beethoven did not make: a journey to the Brentanohaus in Winkel, Germany. In: Beethoven Journal , Vol. 13 (1998), No. 1, pp. 24-30
• Sieghard Brandenburg (ed.), Beethoven. The letter to the immortal beloved , Bonn, Beethoven-Haus, 2001, ISBN 3-88188-045-3
• Klaus Martin Kopitz , Antonie Brentano in Vienna (1809–1812). New sources on the "Immortal Beloved" problem. In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 2 (2001), pp. 115–146, ISBN 3-88188-063-1 ( PDF file )
• Susan Lund, Beethoven and the Catholic Brentanos: The Story Behind Beethoven's Missa Solemnis , BookSurge, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4196-8144-8
• Klaus Martin Kopitz, An unknown request from Beethoven to Emperor Franz I. In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 6 (2007), pp. 101–113 ( PDF file )
• Yayoi Aoki , Beethoven - The deciphering of the riddle about the "Immortal Beloved" , translated from Japanese by Annette Boronnia, Munich, Iudicium-Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89129-184-9
• Klaus Martin Kopitz , Antonie Brentano. In: Das Beethoven-Lexikon , ed. by Heinz von Loesch and Claus Raab , Laaber 2008, pp. 144f.
• Claus Raab, Immortal Beloved. In: ibid, pp. 798-801
• Sylvia Bowden, Beethoven's 'Immortal Beloved': a passionate or compassionate relationship ?. In: The Musical Times , vol. 156, no. 1931 (summer 2015), pp. 47–72
• Klaus Martin Kopitz : The Letter to the Immortal Beloved. Facts and fictions , in: The Beethoven Collection of the Berlin State Library . “This kiss to the whole world!” , Ed. by Friederike Heinze, Martina Rebmann and Nancy Tanneberger, Petersberg: Michael Imhof 2020, pp. 156–163

Web links

• Lexical article at MUGI - "Music and Gender on the Internet"
• Baron von Brentano, Brentano house in Winkel in the Rheingau
• Uwe Harten : Brentano, Antonie Josepha. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-3043-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ These include Yayoi Aoki , Sylvia Bowden , Sieghard Brandenburg , Barry Cooper , Joseph Kerman , William Kinderman , Klaus Martin Kopitz , Lewis Lockwood , Susan Lund , Maynard Solomon and Alan Tyson .
2. ↑ Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) U. a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 1: Adamberger - Kuffner. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , p. 96.
3. ↑ Ibid., P. 99
4. ↑ Goldschmidt (1977), p. 138 f.
5. ↑ See Goldschmidt (1977), p. 108 and Kopitz (2001), p. 135.
6. ↑ Massin (1955), p. 240: "L'hypothèse d'Antonia Brentano est à la fois séduisante et absurde."
7. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven, Correspondence. Complete edition , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg , Volume 1, Munich 1996, No. 273.
8. ↑ Frankfurter Hauptfriedhof, Gruftenhalle, Gruft 48 ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
9. ↑ See Goldschmidt (1977)
10. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven, Correspondence. Complete edition , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg, Volume 5, Munich 1998, p. 71.
11. ↑ However, Beethoven originally intended to dedicate his Diabelli Variations to Franz Brentano: “In a conversation notebook from the beginning of March 1823, precisely the time when Beethoven instructed Schindler to sell a bank share in order to pay off his debt to Brentano, is found from his own hand the record 'Variati an H. v. Brenta. dediciren - 'From this it emerges at least the clearly verifiable intention to consider Franz with the dedication of the Diabelli Variations. "(Goldschmidt 1977, p. 92) However, since Schindler's failure in 1822 in the German and French editions of the Sonatas op. 110 and 111 Antonia had come out empty-handed in the intended appropriation, "the husband had to let the wife go first" (ibid., p. 93).
12. ^ Website of the Beethoven Center