Beethoven promises to send the score of op. 125 within the next two weeks. In addition he wants to send a copy of the Mass op. 123 to Ries and asks Kirchhoffer to choose the cheapest way of sending it. However, Beethoven expresses doubt as to whether Ries will have already looked around for a publisher for the mass in London.
Kirchhoffer was an employee at the Viennese bank Hofmann & Goldstein and helped Beethoven several times in 1823 to transfer music and money to Ries in London. At the beginning of the century Ferdinand Ries had been a pupil of Beethoven's and since he had moved to London, he had often helped him in his business dealings with English publishers. At the time when Beethoven was offering his new mass to numerous German and Austrian publishers (so as to be able to sell it for the most amount of money possible he played the publishers off against each other), he had also asked Ries to find a publisher for the work in London.
