Outer Vienna

It was in the small village of Heiligenstadt, about five kilometres north of Vienna on the banks of the Danube, that Beethoven wrote the most important document that he was ever to write that was not in the form of musical notes.

It was a long letter addressed to his brothers in which he writes at length and movingly of his deafness. He also details what he wants to happen to his possessions after his death. It is, in effect, his last Will and Testament, and is known for that reason as the Heiligenstadt Testament.

Beethoven was 31 years of age when he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, and it came at the end of a prolonged summer stay in the village.

He had moved there in April 1802 on the orders of his doctor, who had advised him to get away from the heat and noise of the city and spend the summer in the tranquil surroundings of Heiligenstadt.

That way, according to his physician Doktor Johann Schmidt, his hearing would surely recover from the temporary blockage that was affecting it.

Beethoven stayed in a house on the Herrengasse, today the Probusgasse, owned by a certain Mathias Binder. It was built round a small courtyard with a linden tree in the centre.

Beethoven rented two rooms and a small kitchen at the back of the house, looking out onto the garden. A wooden staircase led from the courtyard to his rooms.

While there he completed work on the Second Symphony and composed the Piano Variations op. 34 and the op. 35 "Eroica Variations" (also known as the "Prometheus Variations").

Beethoven spent two further summers in Heiligenstadt. In 1808 he stayed in a house in the Grinzingerstrasse in rooms on the first floor looking out onto the street. In rooms at the back of the house the young Franz Grillparzer - later to become Austria's most renowned playwright and to write the Funeral Oration as Beethoven was buried - was staying with his mother and brother.

Frau Grillparzer delighted in sitting on the outside landing listening as Beethoven played the piano.

On one occasion Beethoven threw open the door to discover her there, flew into a rage and refused to play again - despite Frau Beethoven's promises not to disturb him, and even to lock the door that gave out onto the landing!

During this stay Beethoven composed the Pastoral Symphony and the Piano Trio op. 70 no. 1, the "Ghost".

In the early summer of 1817 Beethoven stayed on the first floor of a house at 66 Am Platz.

The house on the Probusgasse has been restored and is now a museum dedicated to Beethoven, containing facsimiles of the Heiligenstadt Testament - the original is in the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg - decorative prints of the period and a plaster bust by Josef Danhauser taken from the death mask.

The house on the Grinzingerstrasse still stands and is in private hands.

The stream along which Beethoven walked at the foot of the Kahlenberg is tamer now, and the muddy path he knew is asphalt with a railing.

The road he took to reach the stream is today named the Eroicagasse and the path the Beethovengang. In the woods at the end of the Beethovengang stands a bust of Beethoven on a pedestal.

By St Michael's church in Heiligenstadt Park stands a full-size 'walking' statue' of Beethoven (see top of page). Although the Viennese sculptor Robert Weigl made it in 1902, it is, in my view, the best representation of Beethoven anywhere.

It perfectly captures the short stocky figure with the large leonine head. Looking at it one can almost feel the power emanating from it, as his friends said it did from Beethoven himself.

© John Suchet