It is narrated that Beethoven received the
proposition with joy, but gave only a qualified assent. There is no
doubt that he would have found inspiration in the text, and that a noble
work would have resulted, but he feared the nervous strain of such an
undertaking. "I should enjoy it," he said to Rochlitz, "but I shudder at
the thought of beginning works of such magnitude. Once engaged on them,
however, I have no difficulty." His labors on the Mass aged him. In his
prime on its inception, he emerged from his seclusion on completing it,
infirm and broken in health. The idea of the Faust music attracted him,
as it would have been strictly symphonic in character. He occasionally
refers to it subsequently, but never got so far as to enter themes for
it in his note-books. Wagner essayed it, but went no further than to
write the overture. The subject of Faust still awaits a capable
interpreter.
His next commission was a simple one, consisting of an order early in
the spring of 1823 from Diabelli, composer and head of a large
publishing house in Vienna, for six variations on a waltz by him
(Diabelli).
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