Tag Archives: BTHVN2020

Listening to Beethoven #43 – Rondino in E flat major

Posted on by
Reply


The Lobkowitzplatz, Vienna by Bernardo Bellotto (18th century)

Rondino in E flat major WoO 25 for wind octet (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons) (1793, Beethoven aged 22)

Dedication
Duration 6’30”

Listen

Background and Critical Reception

The Rondino is thought to have been written around the same time as the Octet for wind Op.103, and may even be a discarded movement from it, given that it shares the same key (E flat major), instrumentation and composition period (either very late in the Bonn period or 1793).

It is for a pair each of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, with the horn writing in particular coming in for special mention. Martin Harlow, writing in the booklet notes for the Albion Ensemble’s recording on Hyperion, describes the Rondino as ‘a marvellously economical work whose brevity belies the intensity of invention contained within’.

The Unheard Beethoven website’s entry for the work notes its close relationship to Mozart’s Serenades, ‘at one level with his masterpiece for the same instruments’ and sharing the same instrumentation. The conclusion is that the Rondino is an ‘amazing, early masterpiece’.

Thoughts

How lovely it is to hear the sonorities of a wind ensemble in the Beethoven listening. This is a lovely piece, the strong implication being that the composer has already mastered writing for such a group but this is the first we properly hear of it.

The title (given by the publisher after Beethoven’s death, possibly) conjures up ideas of a light, frivolous piece, but in the event this Rondino is a tender affair. Its main theme is an attractive one, and lingers in the memory, but the middle sections are elegiac and quite sorrowful, moving as they do through minor keys.

The colours are beautiful, the use of horns particularly masterful – Beethoven seemingly one of the first to use mutes on the instrument as a form of expression. It may be small, but this is a perfectly formed and rather gorgeous piece.

Recordings used

Netherlands Wind Ensemble (Deutsche Grammophon)
L’Archibudelli (Sony Vivarte)
Sabine Meyer Bläserensemble (Warner Classics)
The Albion Ensemble (Helios)

Four fine versions here. The L’Archibudelli version – on instruments of the period – feels slightly woolly with its recorded sound to begin with, before the ensemble passages blossom. It is taken at a slower tempo than the other versions. Both the Sabine Meyer Bläserensemble and The Albion Ensemble are notable for their affection for the piece.

Spotify links

L’Archibudelli

Netherlands Wind Ensemble

Sabine Meyer Bläserensemble

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 1793 Haydn Andante with variations in F minor HXVII:6(

Next upOctet in E flat major Op.103

Listening to Beethoven #42 – 12 Variations on ‘Se vuol ballare’

Posted on by
1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (left) and the young Ludwig van Beethoven

12 Variations on Mozart’s aria ‘Se vuol ballare’ WoO40 for piano and violin (1793, Beethoven aged 22)

Dedication Elenore von Breuning
Duration 12’30”

Listen

What’s the theme like?

Mozart’s theme is from the first act of Le nozze de Figaro – Se vuol ballare being an aria for Figaro himself, on discovering the count’s schemes.

Background and Critical Reception

‘I should never have written down this kind of piece, had I not already noticed fairly often how some people in Vienna after hearing me extemporize of an evening would note down on the following day several peculiarities of my style and palm them off with pride as their own. Well, as I foresaw that their pieces would soon be published, I resolved to forestall these people’.

Beethoven’s statement, made in a letter in 1794, confirms he was now in Vienna – and already attracting great interest. In the covering note with the piece, he also makes reference to the extra prominence for the violin in the work – now seen alongside the piano. ‘The variations will be rather difficult to play, and particularly the trills in the coda. But this must not intimidate or discourage you. For the composition is so arranged that you need only play the trill and can leave out the other notes, since these appear in the violin part as well.’

Nigel Fortune, writing in The Beethoven Companion, suggests Beethoven included these features in his work to embarrass the pianists who tried to play his music, giving them music of extra difficulty.

Thoughts

Beethoven’s statement of the theme is unusual, choosing to announce the tune through pizzicato violin with the softest of piano accompaniments. In this way he imitates a guitar, mirroring the way the tune is first heard in the opera.

As the variations unfold the piano takes the lead, particularly in a thrilling fourth variation which has the mood of a Bach sonata with its bubbling counterpoint, passed back and forward between the instruments. The fifth variation enjoys subtle humour with the figure of a trill exchanged, but then the mood darkens.

The sixth variation moves to the minor key, and the violin plays a mournful melody as the piano adopts a slow, bell-like toll. The roles are reversed for the seventh variation, the music still in the minor key but with a few longer dissonances. Soon the sun returns, the music flowing forward through variations eight and nine, the latter generating terrific energy in its fast moving writing for piano alone, the violin taking a brief rest.

The final variations find the instruments close together, the music flowing and in affirmative mood, but then in the coda Beethoven unexpectedly moves into a new key (D major), which takes the listener by surprise and opens up the music completely. This is however shortlived, the false ‘departure’ quickly coming home to rest with a rather touching finish led by soft trills on the piano.

Beethoven’s first Viennese work is a strong statement, and a very enjoyable one at that. Anyone wishing to capture his music on paper would have had a hard time, for his music is starting to show invention and imagination at every turn.

Recordings used

Yehudi Menuhin (violin), Wilhelm Kempff (piano) (Deutsche Grammophon)
Takako Nishizaki (violin), Jenő Jandó (piano) (Naxos)

Menuhin and Kempff are delightful in this piece, playing as though they were at the opera themselves. The minor key variation has a strong pull. Takako Nishizaki and Jenő Jandó are excellent, too – they pull the tempo around less but that works well in the longer scheme of things.

Spotify links

Yehudi Menuhin, Wilhelm Kempff

Takako Nishizaki, Jenő Jandó

Also written in 1793 Haydn Piano Trio in G major Hob.XV:32

Next up Octet in E flat major Op.103

Listening to Beethoven #41 – 8 Lieder Op.52

Posted on by
Reply


Peanuts comic strip, drawn by Charles M. Schulz (c)PNTS

8 Lieder Op.52 for voice and piano (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Urians Reise um die Welt (poet: Matthias Claudius)
Feuerfarb’ (Sophie Moreau)
Das Liedchen von der Ruhe (Hermann Wilhelm Franz Ueltzen)
Mailied (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Mollys Abschied (Gottfried August Bürger)
Lied (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing)
Marmotte (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Das Blümchen Wunderhold. (Gottfried August Bürger)

Dedication not known
Text as above
Duration 15’30”

Listen

Background and Critical Reception

Beethoven’s Op.52 is effectively an anthology of eight songs thought to have been written before he left Bonn for Vienna, with no exact dates of composition. They set six poets in all, and in publication at least are arranged in a logical sequence. That they are rarely performed in that sequence, or in a complete state, says much for the chequered reputation Beethoven’s songs continue to receive.

It has always been the case. To say these songs divided opinion early in their existence is to put it mildly – and as the (uncredited) booklet note for the complete songs as released by Capriccio notes, ‘the echo they met with in the musical criticism of the time is typical of the way the majority of Beethoven’s songs have been received critically up to the present day’. The example quoted is the Popular Music Newspaper in Leipzig, whose verdict in 1805 ran…’these eight songs. Is that possible? Comprehend it who can, that such thoroughly common, impoverished, dull and in parts even risible works can not only be produced by such a man, but also be presented to the public! Only the first of these songs (Urian’s Journey), as a result of the touch of the comic, and the seventh (Marmotte) as a result of a national element, which however, can be learned from any young marmot, are tolerable’.

In reality it is very unlikely the eight songs would be performed together from start to finish – performers would tend to take a song or two as part of a section of the concert dedicated to Beethoven songs. The songs vary greatly in character however. Urians Reise has 14 stanzas for its journey around the world, concluding in its various sufferings, and with a wry smile, that people are the same everywhere.

Mailied and Marmotte represent Beethoven’s first settings of a certain Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the former complemented by Susan Dunn as ‘wonderful, a variation on the antique genret of the spring song’. Mollys Abschied and Das Blümchen Wunderhold set the verses of Gottfried August Bürger, the first a ballade on the tragic death of the poet’s sister-in-law, who died in childbirth a year after they were married, and the second ‘the epitome of the folk-like Lied’.

Feuerfarb’ is an unconventional poem from Sophie Moreau, while Das Liedchen von der Ruhe speaks of a forced parting which for Dunn ‘elicited a gently lovely song’ from the composer. Lied, from the pen of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, would surely have chimed with Beethoven’s desire for a wife.

Thoughts

Once again, listening to Beethoven’s songs is a revealing exercise, and there is much in this set to note. Urians Reise is a long tale with a comedic twist – po-faced but also alternating between minor and major key in a rather more blatant manner than Schubert would eventually write. The many verses are dressed with a stentorian refrain. “There’s a thing! Well done, old chum, Er, what’s yer name, go on go on…”

Feuerfarb’ is softer, with flowing piano and a more sensitive line, and here a major-minor clash appears briefly but tellingly in the piano line. Das Liedchen von der Ruhe (A Reflection on Peace) depicts a tired, suffering man searching for the kind of rest he cannot have – with Elise – but still it looks anyway, dwelling on the thought of eternal rest and crossing into paradise.

Mailied, the first setting of Goethe, tells a first-hand account of an affair. It is bright, springlike and quite wordy, with a piano part chirping like the birds. Mollys Abschied also has a brighter tone but is a pained song, given as a farewell to ‘my man of joy and pain’. The piano is quite florid between verses – and there is definitely a sense that the piano is starting to contribute more to Beethoven’s songs, acting not just as an accompaniment but offering more comments on the text. This song is short but rather touching – and La Marmotte (Goethe again) is a quick and pictorial tale. Finally Das Blümchen Wunderhold is a song about the Wondrouswort flower, ‘more valuable than any jewel’ and with powers ‘no elixir on earth can match’. The music doesn’t perhaps reach those heights but still tells the story.

Recordings used

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano) (Deutsche Grammophon)
Hermann Prey (baritone), Leonard Hokanson (piano) (Capriccio)

Fischer-Dieskau is imperious in these songs, commanding in Urians Reise and larger than life in La Marmotte, which is cut to a tiny version but really nicely weighted in Die Liebe. Hermann Prey and Leonard Hokanson, meanwhile, employ a unison choir to sing the choruses in the lengthier Urians Reise, an effective tactic especially when alternating between men’s and women’s voices.

Spotify links

A playlist of three different versions of the 8 Songs can be found here:

Also written in 1792 Haydn Symphony no.97 in C major

Next up 12 Variations on ‘Se vuol ballare’ Woo40

Listening to Beethoven #40 – 13 Variations on ‘Es war einmal ein alter Mann’

Posted on by
Reply


Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (left) and the young Ludwig van Beethoven

13 Variations on Dittersdorf’s air ‘Es war einmal ein alter Mann’ for piano (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Dedication not known
Duration 12′

Listen

What’s the theme like?

Dittersdorf’s theme is taken from an opera, Das rothe Käppchen. In profile it is similar to the Swiss song on which Beethoven wrote six simple variations, not long before completing this work.

Background and Critical Reception

Having been rather dismissive of the entertaining Waldstein variatioms, booklet writer Jean-Charles Hoffelé is more forthcoming on their successor. They ‘make the most of the popular ballad from the opera Das rothe Käppchen. The dominant-tonic interval is exploited to the full to create a tension that is resolved only in the final march’.

Barry Cooper, writing in the notes for the DG Complete Beethoven Edition, gets to the nub of Beethoven’s wit. ‘The most striking effect is the sudden and prolonged rest in the middle of the theme. Beethoven exploits the humourous effect of this rest by creating witty surprises after it in almost every variation, so that the flow of the music is not merely interrupted by the rest but is diverted from its previous course by what follows. In the final variation, a march, there is once again a witty surprise after the rest – for the first time the music just carries on as if nothing had happened. The joke is that there is no joke!

Thoughts

On first hearing it’s tempting to think the pianist has made a mistake when playing this theme. This is the ‘prolonged rest’ that Barry Cooper talks about, and once you know it’s there the ear listens out for it in each variation.

If it was ever played in public this trick could potentially have brought the house down, and when listening it certainly raises a smile – especially as Beethoven’s approaches to this bit of silence are so wildly varied. Silence, of course, would become a key element of Beethoven’s style as it progressed, and this is the first explicit example of it used prominently in a theme.

The variations sparkle, Beethoven again showing off what he can do with busy figurations for the right hand especially. The minor key variation (the sixth) is unexpectedly dark after the major key brilliance – while the ninth alternates between both moods, a flurry of notes suddenly coming to a sombre pause when Beethoven’s trick once again reveals itself.

Once again Beethoven turns entertainer, and in this case prankster – but beneath the notes he is continuing to explore different techniques and ever-more demanding writing for the piano. As a result there is much of note to find in this piece.

Recordings used

Cécile Ousset (Eloquence), John Ogdon (EMI/Warner Classics), Ronald Brautigam (BIS)

A fascinating and varied trio of versions here. Ousset has a winning elegance from the start, but fully embraces Beethoven’s invention and instinct as the variations progress. John Ogdon brings a mischievous element right from the start, with some appealing, jaunty phrasing, while Brautigam gives a charismatic account. Three excellent versions that complement each other.

Spotify links

Cécile Ousset

John Ogdon

track 34 onwards on this album:

Ronald Brautigam

Also written in 1792 Hummel Piano Trio no.1 in E flat major Op.12

Next up Prüfung des Küssens

Listening to Beethoven #39 – 8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein

Posted on by
Reply


Count Waldstein (left) and Ludwig van Beethoven aged approximately 25.

8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein WoO 67 for piano duet (1790-92, Beethoven aged 21)

Dedication not known, but presumed to be Count Waldstein
Duration 8′

Listen

What’s the theme like?

The theme sounds quite quaint and a little rickety on the fortepiano. Its alternations between major and minor harmonies give it a bittersweet flavour.

Background and Critical Reception

This is another piece from Beethoven’s last days in Bonn that was not published in his lifetime – and another that has almost completely bypassed the writings of the composer’s scholars. Keith Anderson, writing booklet notes for the engaging release of Beethoven’s music for piano duet on Grand Piano Records, notes the piece was picked up by the publisher Nikolaus Simrock, but without initial consultation with the composer himself.

By now Beethoven was using the ‘theme and variations’ format as a way of flexing his muscles as a composer, trying out new and – in some cases – ever more daring feats. No doubt when making music with friends he got acquainted with the idea of piano duets – Mozart especially had written a number of pieces for the format – and this was his first, quite extravagant work for four hands.

Waldstein is recorded on Wikipedia as a ‘fairly good pianist and composer’ – so it is tempting to think Beethoven wrote the second part with him in mind. Certainly some of the prompting is easier for the second pianist, as the first part goes wild at the top end of the keyboard!

Thoughts

Beethoven has some fun with these variations, which seem to have been designed for lighthearted performance among friends. Certainly if the fourth variation is anything to go by, with its detached swoops from high down to low and back again. The second and fifth have a torrent of notes in the right hand, while the sixth is also pretty outrageous, an outgoing display piece. The seventh is po-faced, with a syncopation here and there disrupting the rhythms enjoyably, while the eighth variation switches to C minor, rich in harmonic flavour.

Then there is a really pronounced pause, Beethoven looking round at his audience with a tease or two – before a sizeable coda which could really be called a Fantasia. Where will the music go? Beethoven starts to go off at a number of tangents, recalling the unpredictable methods of C.P.E. Bach. The speeds vary wildly, as do the moods – and just as the direction seems uncertain, we head back to the main key through a series of heavy chords. Beethoven refuses to finish with a flourish though, a soft chord all he needs to bring the house down.

Ultimately this piece has a lot of signposts for the watching public, and they surely would have loved it in private performance – if indeed it got to see the light of day. It is a good deal of fun.

Recordings used

Amy & Sara Hamann (Grand Piano)
Arthur & Lucas Jussen (Deutsche Grammophon)

This piece is a riot in the hands of the Hamann sisters, who appreciate the rougher edges the fortepiano provides. They use this to their advantage, bringing out the contrasts between the variations. Their album of piano duets presents the pieces first on the fortepiano, and then on a modern Yamaha, giving the listener a great chance to compare and contrast. The modern version is cleaner and less ‘on the edge’, but still very entertaining.

Alongside this pair the Jussen brothers sound rather more chaste, though they too have some fun once the variations are into their stride.

Spotify links

Amy & Sara Hamann (Fortepiano after J.A. Stein, 1784)

Amy & Sara Hamann (modern Yamaha)

Arthur & Lucas Jussen

Also written in 1792 Gelinek 6 Variations on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen

Next up 13 Variations on ‘Es war einmal ein alter Mann’