A
handwritten letter by Ludwig van Beethoven reveals the German composer
was displeased about his “low salary.” The letter, written in July 1823
and addressed to Franz Stockhausen, concerned Beethoven’s search for
wealthy people to sponsor his latest composition, “Missa solemnis.”
Beethoven wrote he needed more money, in part, because of his worsening
deafness. “My low salary and my illness demand efforts to make a better
fortune,” he wrote at the age of 53, four years before his death. The
letter, which has been valued at $188,500, was found recently among
items bequeathed to Germany’s Brahms Institute of the Lubeck School of
Music by Stockhausen’s great-granddaughter, Renate Wirth. Wirth died
last year.
