Beethoven reacts to a letter from his Leipzig publishers in a slightly irritated manner. He asserts that the letter which was posted in Leipzig on 30 January (no longer surviving) only reached him in Vienna in May, a fact which the Viennese post office can authenticate. He had obviously been sent a reminder by his publishers to deliver the promised sonatas opp. 56 and 57. In addition to the reminder Härtel had probably also suggested conditions for the contract which Beethoven considered unacceptable and which were different to those also discussed. Beethoven defends himself by saying that his brother (who dealt with a great deal of his business correspondence at the time) had simply underestimated the time needed to do the copying.
Without going into the amount to be paid (at any rate he stresses it is "far less than what I usually take"), Beethoven angrily asks for the works he has already sent (opp. 53, 54, 55 and probably WoO 136) to be returned: he is not prepared to sell them for less money.
He generously leaves his Oratorio op. 85 in Leipzig and does not ask for it to be sent back. As the material for the parts is already in Leipzig, the work may also be performed there - as initiated by Prince Lichnowsky. There is no reason why a score edition may not be made, he only retains the rights for a piano arrangement for Vienna.
The publisher had apparently voiced the suspicion that Beethoven's brother Kaspar Karl was acting as an intermediary but was hindering communication. Beethoven rejects this criticism, "no - the hindrances are inherent in the nature of the thing - which I neither can nor desire to change".
