Thursday July 9, 1812, sometime in the morning – Teplitz, Bohemia. Beethoven. Beethoven! I caught up with the great Ludwig as he was making his way to the spa where he had been going lately in the hopes of improving his health. It wasn’t particularly warm especially for July, and it looked like it was going to rain in a bit. He seemed preoccupied. I wondered was he thinking about a great composition. Was it his health? Or perhaps he just didn’t hear me approaching? His hearing was already affecting him at this point.
Apparently all of the above, and more! I expected him to discuss his 7th or 8th symphonies which he was working on at the time, or perhaps some of his encounters in Teplitz, or maybe even his health issues. No. He focused instead on his letters to his immortal beloved. Wow!
Here I was hoping to get a glimmer of musical genius but instead it was matters of the heart. But I was ready to listen. “Can you paint her?” he asked with intensity! “If you can describe her, I can paint her” I said trying to sound confident. The spa was off the table as we went straight to work. The great master was kind enough to accompany the process with some incredible musical pieces. First hand Beethoven. Unimaginable!
When the piece was done, he gazed at it, quietly, intently, and it even looked like his eyes were welling up. He looked at me and said “it’s her”. To which I replied that it was the precision of his description that made it! Certainly didn’t look like any of the likely candidates, but before I could ask any more questions, my time had run out, and I was gone.
