The writer in the "Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung" alone speaks of the "Christus" as having been received with "extraordinary approval." Three months afterwards another correspondent flatly contradicts this: "In the interest of truth," he writes, "I am obliged to contradict a report in the 'Musikalische Zeitung'; Beethoven's cantata did not please." To this Schindler remarks: "Even the composer agreed with this to this extent--that in later years he unhesitatingly declared that it had been a mistake to treat the part of ~Christ~ in the modern vocal style. The abandonment of the work after the first performance, as well as its tardy appearance in print (about 1810), permit us to conclude that the author was not particularly satisfied with the manner in which he had solved the problem, and that he probably made material changes in the music." The "Wiener Zeitung" of July 30, 1803, gives all the comment necessary on the "abandonment" and probable changes in the work, by announcing that "the favorable reception" of the oratorio had induced the Society of Amateur Concerts to resolve to repeat it on August 4. Moreover, Sebastian Meier's concert of March 27, 1804, opened with the second Symphony of Beethoven and closed with "Christus am Ölberg," being its fourth performance in one year.[5]
A few days after this public appearance we have a sight of Beethoven again in private life. Dr. Joh. Th. Helm, the famous physician and professor in Prague, then a young man just of the composer's age (he was born December 11, 1770), accompanied Count Prichnowsky on a visit to Vienna. On the morning of the 16th of April these two gentlemen met Beethoven in the street, who, knowing the Count, invited them to Schuppanzigh's, "where some of his pianoforte sonatas which Kleinhals had transcribed as string quartets were to be rehearsed. We met," writes Held, in his manuscript autobiography (the citations were communicated to this work by Dr. Edmund Schebek of Prague)
a number of the best musicians gathered together, such as the violinists Krumbholz, Möser (of Berlin), the mulatto Bridgethauer, who in London had been in the service of the then Prince of Wales, also a Herr Schreiber and the 12 years' old[6] Kraft who played second. Even then Beethoven's muse transported me to higher regions, and the desire of all of these artists to have our musical director Wenzel Praupner in Vienna confirmed me in my opinion of the excellence of his conducting. Since then I have often met Beethoven at concerts. His piquant conceits modified the gloominess, I might say the lugubriousness, of his countenance. His criticisms were very keen, as I learned most clearly at concerts of the harpist Nadermann of Saxony and Mara, who was already getting along in years.