Brunsvik, Therese (EN)

Brunsvik, Brunswik, Brunswick, Brunszwik, Therese, Teréz, countess *27 July 1775 Bratislava, †23 September 1861 Pest. She was the sister of Franz Brunsvik, to whom Beethoven dedicated his Appassionata and Fantasia Op. 77, and Josephine Brunsvik, married name Deym, and the daughter of Anton Brunsvik and niece of Joseph Brunsvik, whose castles in Martonvásár and Dolna Krupá Beethoven visited. In 1799, Beethoven established closer relations with the Brunsvik family and gave Therese and Josephine piano lessons during their stay in Vienna; in their album he inscribed the song Ich denke dein with four variations for piano four hands (variations 1, 2, 5, 6; after the addition of the 3rd and 4th variations, they were published as Lied mit Veränderungen, Vienna 1805). Therese Brunsvik was considered, along with her sister, G. Guicciardi and A. Sebald, to be one of the alleged addressees of Beethoven’s letter “to the Immortal Beloved” (recent research points rather to Dorothea Ertmann). She gave Beethoven her portrait with a dedication (now in the Beethovenhaus in Bonn), and he dedicated his Sonata in F sharp major for piano, Op. 78, to her. In later life, she was involved in charitable work.

Literature: La Mara Beethovens unsterbliche Geliebte…, Leipzig 1909; La Mara Beethoven und die Brunsviks, Leipzig 1920; J. Schmidt-Görg Neue Briefe und Schriftstücke aus der Familie Brunsvik, “Beethoven-Jahrbuch” II, 1955/56; Tagebücher und Aufzeichnungen der Gräfin Therese Brunsvik, Berlin 1963; T. Ballová Ludwig van Beethoven a Slovensko, Bratislava 1972.