Scarce ALS in German, signed “Beethoven,” 4.5 x 7.75, April 22, 1816. Handwritten letter to Anton Pachler, in part (translated): "You can do me a great favor today if you will accompany me in the afternoon to Alsergasse, where the house appraisal will take place. Please kindly let me know in writing where I can pick you up around half past 2 this afternoon. I am still not feeling well, otherwise, I would have visited you long ago." In very good to fine condition, with overall creasing, and two areas of paper loss to the integral address leaf which have no effect on the letter itself. Accompanied by a carte-de-visite–type portrait of the composer, a contemporary identification slip, and an export certificate from the French Ministry of Culture.
The recipient of the letter, jurist Anton Pachler, was the elder brother of the Graz lawyer Dr. Carl Pachler. The latter's wife, Marie Leopoldine Pachler (1794-1855), née Koschat, would become particularly esteemed by Beethoven as an interpreter of his piano compositions [cf. Theodor v. Frimmel, Beethoven-Handbuch, Vol. II, Leipzig 1926]. Notably, Marie Pachler was a close friend to Franz Schubert; Schubert dedicated his song, 'An Sylvia,' to her, and she performed with Schubert in an 1827 charity concert organized by the Graz Music Association.
In April 1816, Beethoven lived "Auf der Seilerstädt" C. No. 1055/56 in the Count Lambert's house. The residence was first documented on May 15, 1816, by Charles Neate [Rudolf Klein, Beethovenstätten in Österreich, Vienna 1970, p. 89]; according to Smolle [Kurt Smolle, Wohnstätten Ludwig van Beethovens von 1792 bis zu seinem Tode, Munich/Duisburg 1970, p. 50], Beethoven had moved there after March 21, 1815, but possibly only lived there from autumn 1815 [Klein, Beethovenstätten, p. 90]. Aside from summer stays in Baden, the master remained here until the end of April 1817. On April 4, he wrote the two-part canon 'Ars longa, vita brevis' (WoO 170) for the departing Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and in the same month, he completed the song cycle 'An die ferne Geliebte' op. 98.
Beethoven was in poor health at that time, a fact he acknowledges in this letter and others. 'I was unwell for some time,' he wrote to Ferdinand Ries on February 28, 'the death of my brother [on November 15, 1815] affected my mind and my works' [KK, p. 350]. On February 2, as the guardian of his nephew Karl, he placed him in the Giannatasio del Rio educational institution. In the following weeks, he was plagued by severe colic, but his health seems to have improved again in May.
Why Beethoven was particularly interested in the house appraisal in Alservorstadt on April 16, where he had found his first Viennese residence in November 1792 at No. 45 Alsergasse (then called Alstergasse), is unknown. According to an entry in his diary, he seemed to be considering buying a house in the suburb at that time: 'To live and sustain oneself, a house in the suburb, nothing goes with Karl in the countryside' [Ludwig van Beethoven, Bericht der Zeitgenossen, edited by Albert Leitzmann, Leipzig 1921, Vol. II, p. 258, No. 98]. However, Beethoven did not move until about a year later, from the Sailerstätte to Gärnergasse in the suburb of Landstrasse [Smolle, Wohnstätten, p. 50].
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