ABSTRACT
The first performance in England of the oratorio "The Mount of Olives" took place, and some of the attendant circumstances are sufficiently curious to deserve mention. In 1813 Sir George Smart gave a Lenten Oratorio Season at Covent Garden. Casting round for a novelty for 1814, and hearing the Ludwig van Beethoven work mentioned he offered £50 to anyone who would procure him a copy. On November 16th of 1815 occurred an event that was destined to affect profoundly the remainder of Beethoven's life: his brother Carl died of consumption, leaving instructions in his will that the guardianship of the nine-year-old son Carl was to be shared by his widow and Ludwig. The years 1816 and 1817 were almost a blank as far as composition was concerned, the only works of note being the Pianoforte Sonata in A and the song cycle, "An die feme Geliebte".
