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About Arcana

My name is Ben Hogwood, editor of the Arcana music site (arcana.fm)

Listening to Beethoven #31 – Flute Sonata in B flat major

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Gentleman walking a hound in a wooded landscape (Unknown, German school, late 18th century

Flute Sonata in B flat major Anh.4 (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Dedication unknown
Duration 25′

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Background and Critical Reception

This substantial four-movement work was found amongst Beethoven’s papers after his death, and was not published until 1906. Despite its location, there are a number of doubts over the authorship of the piece – which appears not to have been in Beethoven’s own handwriting, according to biographer Alexander Thayer.

Barry Cooper, writing in the ‘Rarities’ booklet accompanying DG’s New Complete Edition of Beethoven, makes several useful points. He notes a ‘few awkward moments that could betray inexperience’, and says ‘its authenticity cannot yet be excluded completely, if it is a very early work’. Yet in the other corner there are ‘far fewer articulation markings than in even Beethoven’s earliest known works’, and the scribe ‘was also the composer’, which for Cooper offers the final proof that Beethoven was ultimately not involved.

If it was indeed Beethoven who wrote this work it is thought it would date between 1790 and 1792 – which would plausibly make the dedicatee the flautist son of the Westerholt-Gysenberg family, who Beethoven had included as part of his equally substantial Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano a few years earlier.

Thoughts

This substantial piece is quite hyperactive in its first few minutes, when it feels like there are too many notes, but the mood is bright and positive. The music gradually settles, passing through quite an adventurous development section where the dynamic changes, from quite a pastoral mood which then darkens as Beethoven shifts into the minor key.

The second movement, a Polacca, sets out on a strident path, in the same key of B flat major. Both instruments are close together, complementing each other’s melodic movements. The theme is a bit more rustic but the polonaise attributes are not obvious.

The slow movement brings the music to rest, and offers a change of scenery in E flat major. The final movement finds the players close again for a bright theme on which the players then expand with four variations. Even the minor key variation, the third, doesn’t really cloud the sunny exterior too much. By Beethoven’s standards so far it does feel like a relatively standard theme and variations, but they end with a flourish and a relatively restful coda.

Recordings used

Michel Debost (flute), Christian Ivaldi (piano) (Warner Classics)
Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Eric Le Sage (piano) (Auvidis Valois)
Severino Gazzelloni (flute), Bruno Canino (piano) (DG)

A trio of excellent performances here, each of which serves the sonata very well. The top choice by a whisker would be the ever-stylish Emmanuel Pahud and Eric Le Sage, though Severino Gazzelloni and Bruno Canino run them close with their close-knit partnership, which is particularly beautiful in the slow movement.

Spotify links

Michel Debost, Christian Ivaldi

Emmanuel Pahud, Eric Le Sage

Severino Gazzelloni, Bruno Canino

You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!

Also written in 1792 Haydn Symphony no.98 in B flat major

Next up Primo amore piacer del ciel

Listening to Beethoven #30 – 2 Sonatinas for Piano

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Beethoven with lyre and scroll, alluding to god Apollo (1838-1842)
Reproduction of an old photography of Bläser’s draft, around 1920 (Beethoven-Haus Bonn, photo documentation Stephan Ley, Volume VIII, No. 78)

2 Sonatinas for Piano Anh.5 (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Dedication unknown
Duration 4′ and 5′

Sonatina in G major Anh.5 no.1
1 Moderato
2 Romanze
Sonatina in F major Anh.5 no.2
1 Allegro assai
2 Rondo

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Background and Critical Reception

These two works, of tiny dimensions, are attributed to Beethoven with a suspected year of composition between 1790 and 1792. The unusual numbering of Anh.5 comes from the 1955 catalogue of Beethoven works put together by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm. ‘Anh’ is an abbreviation for ‘Anhang’, the German word for ‘appendix’, indicating that Beethoven’s authorship remains in doubt.

Were the pieces genuine they would fall towards the end of Beethoven’s time in Bonn. Both works are in two movements, and are mostly suitable for beginners.

Thoughts

Regardless of whether Beethoven wrote these pieces or not, they are a good deal of fun – and one (the F major work) contains a proper earworm.

The G major’s Moderato first movement flows easily on the ear, with a polite theme – and the Romanze, more obviously childlike, is equally easy to listen to.

The F major work appears to be in a bit of a hurry in its first movement, with a few lightly mischievous touches to its phrasing. It is in the second movement, a Rondo, where the earworm appears – and again there are a few mischievous touches round the end. With the emphasis almost entirely on that single tune it is well set in the inner ear by the end!

Recordings used

Tobias Koch (DG)
Ronald Brautigam (BIS)

Brautigam’s fortepiano can sound a little clinical with a harsher edge applied in the Romanze, but he gives charming accounts of both Sonatinas. Tobias Koch is also charming in his versions.

Spotify links

Tobias Koch

Ronald Brautigam

You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!

Also written in 1792 Haydn 12 Minuets, Hob.IX:11

Next up 2 Sonatinas for Piano Anh.5

Listening to Beethoven #29 – Two movements from a Piano Sonata in F major

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Bust of Beethoven, by Franz Klein (1812)

2 Movements from a Piano Sonatina in F major WoO 50 (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Dedication Franz Gerhard Wegeler
Duration 2′

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Background and Critical Reception

Very little is known of this short pair of fragments, published long after Beethoven’s death in 1950. The apparent dedicatee is Franz Gerhard Wegeler, a German physician and one of the composer’s childhood friends.

The first movement has no tempo marking but its intentions appear to be quite fast, while the fragmented second movement is in triple time.

Thoughts

The first movement fragment flows smoothly over an oscillating left hand line. Beethoven’s theme is simplicity itself, but goes off at a tangent towards the end. The second movement really is gone before you know it – but has quite a crisp theme with a nice lilt to its rhythm.

Ultimately, both fragments are too short to make a lasting impact.

Recordings used

Gianluca Cascioli (DG)
Alessandro Deljaven (OnClassical)

Cascioli’s performances flow beautifully, while Deljaven’s feel rather more deliberate, the left hand accompaniment much more earthbound.

Spotify links

Gianluca Cascioli

Alessandro Deljaven

You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!

Also written in 1792 Haydn 12 Minuets, Hob.IX:11

Next up 2 Sonatinas for Piano Anh.5

On record – Agnes Zimmermann: The Violin Sonatas (Toccata Classics)

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Agnes Zimmermann
Violin Sonata no.1 in D minor Op.16 (1868)
Violin Sonata no.2 in A minor Op.21 (1875)
Violin Sonata no.3 in G minor Op.23 (1879)

Mathilde Milwidsky, violin; Sam Haywood, piano

Toccata Classics TOCC0541 [84’36”]

Producer Michael Ponder
Engineer Adaq Khan

Recorded 6-7 April 2019, 10 November 2019 at Middlesex University, London

Written by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics continues its not inconsiderable coverage of women composers with this disc of the violin sonatas by Agnes Zimmermann (1947-1925), little recognized as a composer but whose achievements as pianist, teacher and editor were readily acknowledged by her peers.

What’s the music like?

Born in Cologne but largely resident in London, Zimmermann long enjoyed a reputation for her pianism throughout Europe. Her own output is not extensive and mainly from her earlier years, with these three sonatas a notable addition to British music of the mid-Victorian era.

Lasting around 28 minutes, the format of these sonatas is consistent without being predictable. Each begins with a finely proportioned Allegro, the First Sonata being most straightforward in its purposefully contrasted main themes. That of the Second Sonata is more understated, its main themes merging into a seamless continuity whose ominous import is briefly disrupted in the central development. As to the Third Sonata, this commences with greater expansiveness then maintains such deliberation through its intensive development and on to a fatalistic coda.

Each sonata has a Scherzo, placed second in the initial two sonatas. That of the First Sonata brings appealing animation and rhythmic subtlety, not least as regards its warmly ruminative trio. By contrast, that of the Second Sonata has a lively insouciance which is accentuated by some deft syncopation and a notably winsome trio. That of the Third Sonata is placed third (not entirely justifiably) and is itself closer to an intermezzo on account of its halting main theme, to which the trio offers only minimal contrast in its mixture of elegance and pathos.

The slow movements are all designated Andante. That of the First Sonata is an ostensible ‘song without words’ and evinces a distinctly Mendelssohnian poise. Whereas that of the Second Sonata centres on a hymn-like melody that proves capable of no mean fervour as it evolves over the course of music whose direct eloquence never risks becoming cloying. By contrast, that of the Third Sonata (placed third) feels more akin to an intermezzo in its lightness of texture and wistful main theme, not least as it heads towards a subdued close.

As to the Finales, these all tend toward the trenchant and unequivocal. Most notably that of the First Sonata, albeit with a wistful second subject to offset the prevailing impetus. That of the Second Sonata unfolds more stealthily in keeping, with the trajectory of this work taken overall, though the decisiveness of its ending is hardly in doubt. That the Third Sonata needs a finale to balance the weight of its first movement is undoubted and this does not disappoint in its eliding ardency and affection, before an elaborate though not over-wrought apotheosis.

Does it all work?

Yes, in that Zimmermann was essentially a consolidator of the chamber tradition stretching from Beethoven, through Schumann, to Brahms. Her violin sonatas are at least equal to those by such British contemporaries as Parry and Stanford in their conviction and craftsmanship.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. Mathilde Milwidsky is an unfailingly persuasive exponent and astutely partnered by Sam Haywood. Sound is unexceptionally fine, and Peter Fribbins pens a detailed analytical overview. Why the sonatas are featured on CD in reverse order is, however, anyone’s guess.

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You can discover more about this release at the Toccata Classics website, where you can also purchase the recording.

On record – Nash Ensemble – John Pickard: The Gardener of Aleppo (BIS)

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John Pickard
The Gardner of Aleppo (2016)
Daughters of Zion (2016)*
Snowbound (2010)
Serenata Concertata (1984)**
Three Chicken Studies (2008)
The Phagotus of Afranio (1992)
Ghost-Train (2016)

*Susan Bickley (mezzo); **Philippa Davies (flute); Nash Ensemble / Martyn Brabbins

BIS BIS 2461 SACD [79’22”]

Producer / Engineer Simon Fox-Gál

Recorded September 2018 at All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, London

Written by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

BIS continues its coverage of music by John Pickard (b. 1963) with an extensive overview of chamber works surveying more than three decades of creativity, in performances by the Nash Ensemble that do ample justice to this composer’s combative while always accessible music.

What’s the music like?

Earliest is Serenata Concertata, written when Pickard was still an undergraduate and his first paid commission. Essentially a concerto for flute and five instruments, it unfolds continuously from a haunting Cadenza I then a pensive Aria I to the Scherzo-Notturno whose accrued energy carries over into the climactic Cadenza II, before Aria II brings an emotional poise that gradually dies away towards the close. Whatever its passing influences, Pickardian traits are everywhere apparent and the composer was surely right to keep this work in his catalogue.

Philippa Davies makes a fine showing, as does Ursula Leveaux in The Phagotus of Afranio – the title that of a fanciful forerunner of the bassoon, whose Hoffnung-like presence evinces humour and no little pathos in this entertaining ‘capriccio’. Hardly less diverting, the Three Chicken Studies evoke its subjects respectively laying, feeding then fighting in miniatures, as rendered by Gareth Hulse, both winsome and insouciant (and fully deserving of inclusion in Pickard’s catalogue). Alone among these pieces, Snowbound has been previously recorded (Toccata Classics) – the new account being more spacious and more graphic in its depiction of a familiar landscape as rendered unrecognizable through music that cannily emphasizes those darker sonorities of bass clarinet, cello and piano on route to a ‘glacial’ denouement.

The remaining three works followed in the wake of the imposing Fifth Symphony and testify to the variety of Pickard’s approach irrespective of genre or instrumentation. Setting a text by Gavin D’Costa, Daughters of Zion relates the fateful decision of Mary and its consequences in music by turns ominous and plangent – superbly sung by Susan Bickley. No less resonant in emotional impact, The Gardner of Aleppo was inspired by an incident in the Syrian civil war, where a flower-seller continued to ply his wares in the face of heavy bombardment up until his untimely death. Here, too, flute, viola and harp make for a (surprisingly?) tensile combination across its trajectory of evocation, animation and recollection. By comparison, Ghost-Train might appear humorous in its (often graphic) portrayal of the once obligatory fairground ride; as represented by a perpetuum mobile whose stealthy refrain finds contrast with sundry episodes of a more or less grotesque nature, duly culminating in an apotheosis whose sombre equivocation suggests this to be a journey from which there can be no return.

Does it all work?

Yes, given the alacrity with which these musicians respond to music that, for all its textural and harmonic intricacy, conveys that expressive immediacy manifest throughout Pickard’s output. By so doing, moreover, the stylistic consistency of his idiom is no less in evidence.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. Sound is well up to BIS’s customary standards as to clarity and perspective, with the composer’s booklet note typical in its keen observation and wry humour. Further releases of Pickard’s music, not least his first three symphonies, will hopefully follow from this source.

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You can discover more about this release at the BIS website, where you can also purchase the recording.