From 1861 he directed the complete critical edition of Beethoven’s works published by Breitkopf & Härtel, and from then on Nottebohm entered a musical field for which he was particularly suited. This was followed, in 1875, by his collaboration with Mendelssohn on a complete edition of Mozart’s works. When Thomas‑Kantor Karl Wilhelm Rust (who between 1853 and 1878 published 18 volumes of the Bach Edition) retired in 1882, Nottebohm was chosen as his successor; but he was already so ill that he could not assume the position.
Up to that point he had earned great merit by publishing thematic catalogues of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schubert, and especially through his critical essays and studies on Beethoven’s sketchbooks. With these pioneering works, he offered for the first time to all readers a clearer and highly detailed view of Beethoven’s creative process.
As for Nottebohm’s compositions—almost all predating his activity as a music critic—his variations for four hands on a theme by Bach, Op. 17, deserve mention; he often performed them with Brahms. As a public performer he appeared only three times (1864–69) in the Gesellschaftsconcerten, playing the piano in Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion.
In 1882 his tireless work came to an abrupt halt. Nottebohm contracted a severe lung illness and, on doctors’ advice, went to Salzburg and later to the spa town of Gleichenberg in Styria; but it was too late. After a six‑week stay, he wished to return to Vienna. On his return journey he had to stop in Graz, where he arrived exhausted. On the 26th he was taken to hospital and died shortly before midnight on 29 October. Many friends and musicians attended the funeral on the afternoon of the 31st. Even Brahms (whom he had met in 1862), rushing from Vienna to his dying friend, took care of the funeral arrangements. He now rests in the Protestant cemetery Petersfriedhof, in a grave adorned with a tombstone carved by one of his former students.
His writings were published in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt (1875–1879). Under the title Neue Beethoveniana, a first volume was published in 1882 by Rieter‑Biedermann in Leipzig, and later collected by his friend Eusebius Mandyczewski and published in 1887 by the same publisher as Zweite Beethoveniana. The index of both volumes was published in October 1888 by Mandyczewski.
He was described thus:
“In his material needs, he lived solely for his art. Behind a reserved nature he concealed a profound mind that opened itself only to those who knew him intimately.”
He had few friends, but among them were the violinist Joseph Joachim, the music teacher Johann Rufinatscha, the writer Peter Graf Ferdinand Laurencien, and Eduard Hanslick. Truly intimate with him were only a handful: Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Beethoven’s biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer, his childhood friend Karl Grün, and the composer Robert Volkmann (1815–1883), who worked in Vienna and later as professor at the Academy of Music in Budapest (1854–1858). Together they travelled widely, even to distant countries, and maintained a very interesting correspondence that reveals their deep friendship and sheds light on the musical life of Vienna at the time. This correspondence was published in:
Hans Clauß, Gustav Nottebohms Briefe an Robert Volkmann, with biographical introduction, commentary, and other contemporary documents. Published for the 150th anniversary of Gustav Nottebohm’s birth by the city of Lüdenscheid (Beiträge zur westfälischen Musikgeschichte, Heft 1), 1967.
Nottebohm is considered the founder of modern sketch research, today an essential part of Beethoven studies, as it offers a unique view of the composer’s creative process. His tireless and philologically conscientious work in tracing sources and dates was truly remarkable, and his scholarship benefited many later researchers. Although he was not the first to explore Beethoven’s sketches, he certainly studied them in a more detailed manner than anyone before him, and his work—ignored for several years—has been greatly appreciated in the last fifty years.
A true epigone of rigorous musicology, he investigated the creative processes of the great masters; Nottebohm’s studies were not limited to Beethoven. He published a thematic catalogue of Schubert and was an avid collector of Baroque and pre‑Baroque music, both vocal and instrumental. Brahms inherited part of his collection and donated it, along with his own library, to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, where it is still preserved.
