Adventures with Beethoven
Scene Three
Who was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”?
Many scholars, most notably the eminent Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon, believe that Antonie Brentano was the recipient of the “Immortal Beloved” letter. She, her husband, and one of her children travelled to Prague on July 3rd, 1812, the date of the infamous meeting. Beethoven and Antonie saw each other a few more times over the subsequent weeks. After that they appear to have never seen each other again since Antonie and her husband returned home to Frankfurt. Like Josephine Brunsvik, Antonie also had a child approximately nine months after the meeting date in Prague. Karl Josef Brentano was born in 1813. At age four, Karl Josef was struck with an illness that limited his mental capacity and movement. One scholar believes that this news reached Beethoven and this explains a period in 1817 where Beethoven wrote very little. Antonie spent the rest of her life in Frankfurt spending a great deal of her time raising money for the poor in the city. The family was also well-known for their cultural influence on the city, hosting a salon which brought artists and intellectuals to their home, including Goethe and the Grimm brothers.
It is impossible to know for certain who was the intended recipient of the “Immortal Beloved” letter. Most scholars now seem to believe the most likely candidates were either Josephine Brunsvik or Antonie Brentano, but doubts have been raised about each of them as well. Overall, Beethoven had a complicated love life. He seemed to always fall in love with women who were unattainable, because of differences in age or social class or because they were already married. Beethoven seems to have always been in love and when one relationship ended, he seemed to quickly find a new object of affection. His passion can be seen especially in the “Immortal Beloved” letter. His music was an important way to express his emotions as well.
Unlike previous composers, Beethoven used his music to portray his own feelings and emotions, whether it was love and affection as in An die fern Geliebte or Andante favori, determination in the opening of Symphony No. 5, or joy in the last movement of Symphony No. 9. Beethoven’s emotions were at times an open book or, perhaps more correctly, a musical score, which let the audience know the inner workings of his heart at a certain time. While we may never know to whom the letter was intended, the mystery of “Immortal Beloved” shows us the great emotional capacity for love that Beethoven had and the sadness of an unfulfilled relationship.
Town of Teplitz (Teplice) where Beethoven wrote the “Immortal Beloved” letter, from Wikipedia