Violin Concerto movement in C major WoO 5(1790-2, Beethoven aged 21)
Dedication not known
Duration 15′
Listen
Background and Critical Reception
This is Beethoven’s first attempt at writing a violin concerto, which went as far as 259 bars. The fragment of a first movement is kept in a museum in Vienna, and debate continues as to whether it is part of a single movement or an entire concerto.
Lewis Lockwood thinks it may date from the early Vienna years, but the narrowest time frame available is between 1790 and 1792 – which may mean it predates Beethoven’s departure from Bonn.
Several scholars have attempted to complete the work – but the only official edition came in 1961 from Willy Hess, the admired Beethoven scholar who also completed the E-flat major Piano Concerto we have already heard. The orchestration is straightforward – the violinist accompanied by a chamber orchestra with the strings augmented by flute and pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns.
Thoughts
The musical language of this fragment is quite polite, starting with a genial theme from the orchestra in unison. Beethoven fleshes this out, before the violin rather sneaks in around the 3’30” mark. Once arrived, though, the soloist takes over, leading the orchestra in an attractive if straightforward discourse. The tunes are nice but ultimately less memorable than others Beethoven was writing at the time.
Recordings used
Gidon Kremer, London Symphony Orchestra / Emil Tchakarov (DG)
Jakub Junek, Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra / Marek Štilec (Naxos)
Gidon Kremer plays a substantial completion by Wilfried Fischer, lasting a quarter of an hour and twice the length of the version from Jakub Junek on Naxos. Despite Kremer’s lovely tone it is a little bit overdone, especially with the dimensions of the cadenza towards the end. Jakub Junek’s version is nicely balanced with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra.
Spotify links
Gidon Kremer, London Symphony Orchestra / Emil Tchakarov (DG)
Jakub Junek, Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra / Marek Štilec (Naxos)
You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!
The Coronavirus pandemic has hit the arts hard, and only recently have we seen tentative shoots of recovery where live music is concerned. The great choral epics are still some way off, it would seem – which leads John Earls to ponder when he might complete his personal Mahler symphony cycle…
Mahler’s Eighth is the only one of his symphonies I haven’t seen performed live. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to. The sheer scale of the piece (it includes eight soloists, two choirs, children’s chorus and full orchestra including concert organ) means it is the least performed of his symphonies. It is also regarded by some as too grand, incoherent, and even kitsch, in comparison to the others – Part 1 is a setting of the Latin Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and Part 2 a setting of the final part of Goethe’s Faust.
The last two times it was performed in my home city of London personal commitments (a friend’s wedding and my son’s birthday) prevented me from attending and completing my personal ‘live Mahler cycle’ (although with due respect to my son he said he wouldn’t mind too much if I went).
The Eighth has been on my mind again recently. Firstly, Stephen Johnson has just published a book on the symphony, The Eighth: Mahler and the World in 1910. I’ve not read it yet, but very much look forward to doing so (I loved his essay on Shostakovich). But Johnson’s book is about the time of the symphony’s premiere. My thoughts have been about the symphony in the present and the future. More specifically, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and coming out of COVID-19.
It’s been well documented how seriously live music, and the arts generally, have been hit by the pandemic. The recent government announcement of support is welcome, but much work still needs to be done and many organisations continue to face an existential crisis.
With lock down and social distancing I realised (perhaps rather selfishly) that I wouldn’t be seeing the Eighth, nicknamed the Symphony of a Thousand (although not a term Mahler himself used), any time soon. But then I started thinking about the piece itself and what it gives to us in this extraordinary time and as we start to come out of COVID-19. To be honest, the Eighth isn’t even my favourite Mahler symphony. However, its themes of enlightenment, redemption, and the power of love, whilst being somewhat perennial, may have a particular resonance at this moment.
Much of the classical music I have been listening to since lock down has tended to be subdued, dare I say austere. This has particularly been the case in respect of recently streamed concerts such as the wonderful June series put on by the Wigmore Hall in association with BBC Radio 3, beautifully bookended by Stephen Hough’s playing of solo piano pieces by Bach and Schumann, and Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida’s performance of Schubert’s Winterreise.
So, at first, there was something quite disconcerting and then ultimately uplifting about the sheer force of listening to the Eighth again, not least when orchestra and choirs combine to such powerful effect right from the off, including the organ. There are some wonderfully delicate moments in its hour and a half too.
Which version to listen to? Two recordings often cited are those by Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Decca, 1971) and Klaus Tennstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991 (EMI, 2011). Both are excellent (although Tennstedt probably just shades it for me). I also have a soft spot for Sir Simon Rattle’s 2004 live performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI, 2005).
It is notable that two of these are live recordings and, of course, much of what is said about Mahler’s Eighth is about it being seen or heard live. Which brings me back to my point about performance. There is something about the combination of the mass assembled forces performing together and being joined by an audience in an even bigger collective. Stephen Johnson (again) put it well in a recent episode of Radio 3’s Music Matters with Tom Service: “A great deal about the ecstasy of this piece is about unity and many, many voices being combined together”. True that. And not just in the context of COVID-19.
I’m still disappointed that I probably won’t get to see a performance of Mahler’s Eighth (at least as we traditionally know it) any time soon. However, I do know that when I do eventually see it, in whatever form, it will have a very particular significance and will, no doubt, be incredibly moving. And not just because I will have completed the cycle.
John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and tweets at @john_earls
You can watch Sir Simon Rattle conducting the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, massed choirs and soloists (including Christine Brewer, Soile Isokoski and David Wilson-Johnson) in a 2002 performance of Mahler’s Symphony no.8 as part of this year’s BBC Proms TV coverage. The broadcast will take place on BBC Four on Sunday 9 August.
Photo credit: Thomas Søndergård conducts massed Proms forces and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the BBC Proms in 2018. (Chris Christodoulou / BBC)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Ludwig van Beethoven, walking in Teplitz / Teplice, Czech Republic. Painted by Adolf Karpellus
Mit Mädeln sich vertragen WoO 90 for bass voice and orchestra (1790-2, Beethoven aged 21)
Dedication Joseph Lux
Text Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Duration 5′
Listen
Background and Critical Reception
“With girls we get along, with men we brawl about”. So runs the first line of Goethe’s Mit Mädeln sich vertragen (With girls we get along), the first of his works to be utilised by Beethoven for musical gain. It is the second of two arias written for the Bonn-based bass (!) Joseph Lux.
Neither of the arias is mentioned much by Beethoven biographers, beyond the date of composition which is thought to be 1791-92. It is not thought the works were performed in Bonn.
In his booklet notes for a new Naxos recording of the aria by Kevin Greenlaw, Keith Anderson writes of how the aria is in fact a setting of a song text from Goethe’s Claudine von Villa Bella, described as ein Schauspiel mit Gesang (‘A play with songs’), and later set by Schubert.
Beethoven revised it in 1795-96, and Anderson talks of how the songs ‘are highly typical of the genre, if not necessarily of Beethoven.’
Thoughts
Beethoven’s melodic inspiration is evident throughout this entertaining piece of music for the stage. It brings out his playful side, which we have now seen on a couple of occasions – and is certainly more lighthearted than you might anticipate for a setting of a Goethe text.
Yet this is a song for men to sing, potentially in a raucous fashion – so it helps that there is a distinctive melody that the strings latch on to, and a refrain that sticks in the head too.
Recordings used
Kevin Greenlaw, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra / Leif Segerstam (Naxos)
Thomas Hampson, Concentus Musicus Wien / Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Warner Classics)
Kevin Greenlaw is ideally suited to this aria, slightly playful and jousting with the strings of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, who enjoy their echo of his refrain. Thomas Hampson’s version is a little broader, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt allowing the horns to rasp in the introduction, giving an edge to the music. Hampson is terrific in the refrains, hurling out the words.
A quickfire version for voice and piano also exists, in the capable hands of the masterly Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Jörg Demus.
Spotify links
Kevin Greenlaw, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra / Leif Segerstam
Thomas Hampson, Concentus Musicus Wien / Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Jörg Demus
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
An image of Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich
Prüfung des Küssens (“Meine weise Mutter spricht”) WoO 89 for bass voice and orchestra (1790-2, Beethoven aged 21)
Dedication Joseph Lux
Text Giorgio Federico Ghedini
Duration 5’30”
Listen
Background and Critical Reception
Beethoven wrote two arias for the bass Joseph Lux, a popular singer in Bonn known for his comic sensibilities. Little is known of the exact composition date beyond the years 1791-92, and it is also thought the works were not performed in Bonn.
A vocal part from the first aria, Prüfung des Küssens, survives from Beethoven’s time in Vienna, which suggests it was to be published – but again there is no evidence of performance. Ernst Herttrich, writing in the booklet notes for DG’s complete edition, notes that Beethoven offered both arias to a publisher in 1822, evidence that he still held them in high regard.
Thoughts
A lightly playful, slightly syncopated introduction brings in our bass singer – with what could easily be an excerpt from a much larger stage work. Beethoven’s writing is impish, slightly cheeky, and although the words are relatively nonsensical the character of Joseph Lux comes through.
The singer dominates, with occasional probing from the orchestra – and the vocal line encourages the character to take liberties with the tempo, to bring humour to the text and to stamp their personality on the aria. The orchestral writing offers plenty of room for this, and the false ending – the aria finishing but then restarting – only adds to the comic potential.
Recordings used
Kevin Greenlaw, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra / Leif Segerstam (Naxos)
Thomas Hampson, Concentus Musicus Wien / Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Warner Classics)
Thomas Hampson is more convincing as a comic baritone in his account, taking a few more liberties with Beethoven’s tempo than Kevin Greenlaw – who is nonetheless a fine performer himself. The newer Naxos recording is more sympathetic in its sound.
Spotify links
Kevin Greenlaw, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra / Leif Segerstam
Thomas Hampson, Concentus Musicus Wien / Nikolaus Harnoncourt
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 Cimarosa – Il Matrimonio Segreto
Ace Records’ Producer Series is looking to recognise the people behind some of the landmark records in pop music – arguing along the way that music studio personnel are not recognised in the way film directors are. They have a particularly strong point in the case of Thom Bell, whose arrangements have helped enhance a good number of Philadelphia soul hits from the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of them are still household regulars, and this compilation takes the stance of a greatest hits set in its quest to recognise Bell’s genius.
Bell, a classically trained musician, became bored with his initial three-chord efforts at songwriting – and was soon looking to bring more of his musical education into his work, with increasingly adventurous techniques and tricks. He often worked in tandem with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, but has tended to languish in the background when it comes to recognition alongside their contributions. With reference to his musical training, hiss scoring became more imaginative, transforming the songs of some of the biggest names in soul – The Stylistics, The O’Jays, Johnny Mathis and The Delfonics all beneficiaries of his touch.
What’s the music like?
Invigorating and inspiring – and a real pick me up in the current times. The fact that this series of songs is paying tribute to an arranger and orchestrator means the listener is compelled to listen beyond the lyrics – and once you do that a whole host of treasures await. The songs themselves are instantly recognisable in many cases – The O’Jays’ peerless Backstabbers, The Stylistics’ People Make The World Go Round, New York City’s I’m Doin’ Fine Now. But where would The O’Jays’ be without that distinctive rumbling on the piano that starts the track, or New York City without the punchy block brass chords – or The Stylistics without their shimmering strings?
Bell can take credit for all and more besides. Among the many highlights here are the airy orchestration to the winsome Connie Stevens song Tick Tock, the brilliant matching up of violins and bass guitar on Archie Bell & The Drells’ Here I Go Again, and the brassy Delfonics classic Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love).
Topping even these moments is the atmospheric introduction to Johnny Matthis’ Life Is A Song Worth Singing, which tells a story in itself with a swirling wind and grainy strings, the music up close and vividly personal. Meanwhile the other Delfonics inclusion, You’ve Been Untrue, benefits from Bell’s imaginative use of harpsichord and zither.
Does it all work?
Very much so. The only slight regret here is that The O’Jays’ Love Train – which Bell appears to have had a hand in – is not included. One of the finest soul songs around, it is notable for its brilliant string arrangement. To be honest, though, that is a minor quibble as all of the 23 songs chosen here are examples of how to boost a song with imaginative orchestral writing.
Is it recommended?
Yes, on several levels. Producers like Thom Bell deserve all the recognition they get and more, for what they bring to soul and pop music is so much more than mere window dressing. They are able to elevate a song from merely good to fantastic, providing those extra touches that we latch on to when the songs appear on the radio. Bell does all that and more, an imaginative mind whose rewards are rich and varied, and who enhances all of these songs.
Stream
You can hear all the songs on this compilation in this pre-created Spotify playlist from Timo Kangas:
