Beethoven performance upcoming, yikes!
Beethoven performance upcoming, yikes!
Hi all,
In one week I will have the opportunity to play the Beethoven PC no 4, chamber version. Wish me LUCK! (please?)
Meanwhile, if anyone is interested, this is a little piece I wrote for the program, and also the C.O.O.F. website:
About the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 Chamber Version
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58, is well-loved and oft-performed. But it is little known that a chamber version of the work exists. Or does it? An interesting controversy swirls around this point. Dr. Hans-Werner Küthen, a musicologist at the Beethoven Archives in Bonn, has reconstructed this version of the concerto and published it in 1995. He took an existing arrangement of the work for string quintet by Beethoven’s contemporary Possinger, and paired it with an embellished solo piano part written by Beethoven himself. This piano part is currently housed in Vienna. The string parts survive without an associated piano part, and the piano part derives from the first copyist’s score, on which Beethoven sketched annotations above the piano solo line. These annotations include over 100 bars of embellishments and changes to the original piano score. Küthen put together evidence including markings on both scores by Beethoven and Possinger, and concluded that Beethoven intended this more elaborate piano version to go with the string quintet arrangement.
Why the chamber version? According to Küthen, it dates from spring 1807, shortly after the premiere in Vienna of the original Op. 58 concerto at a concert presented by Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. It was fairly common practice at the time for composers or arrangers to produce chamber versions of large-scale works, in order to make possible smaller-venue performances, sometimes with the patron as performer. Thus Beethoven may have written the altered piano part at Prince Lobkowitz’s request.
Dr. Barry Cooper of the University of Manchester in England disagrees with Küthen’s thesis, and believes that the embellishments in Beethoven’s hand, admittedly incomplete and sketchy, were not meant for a chamber version, but perhaps for a performance of the original concerto he planned for himself. Beethoven likely viewed a piano concerto as dynamic and evolving rather than static and immutable. Nevertheless, Küthen’s arguments for his reconstructed chamber version, presented in the Beethoven Journal in 1998, are persuasive.
Whatever the origins of this chamber version of the fourth piano concerto, to present a performance of it is surely a fascinating and worthwhile pursuit. It is not merely a scaled-down piano concerto, but a chamber work in its own right, worth a listen.
All the best,
Teresa
In one week I will have the opportunity to play the Beethoven PC no 4, chamber version. Wish me LUCK! (please?)
Meanwhile, if anyone is interested, this is a little piece I wrote for the program, and also the C.O.O.F. website:
About the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 Chamber Version
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58, is well-loved and oft-performed. But it is little known that a chamber version of the work exists. Or does it? An interesting controversy swirls around this point. Dr. Hans-Werner Küthen, a musicologist at the Beethoven Archives in Bonn, has reconstructed this version of the concerto and published it in 1995. He took an existing arrangement of the work for string quintet by Beethoven’s contemporary Possinger, and paired it with an embellished solo piano part written by Beethoven himself. This piano part is currently housed in Vienna. The string parts survive without an associated piano part, and the piano part derives from the first copyist’s score, on which Beethoven sketched annotations above the piano solo line. These annotations include over 100 bars of embellishments and changes to the original piano score. Küthen put together evidence including markings on both scores by Beethoven and Possinger, and concluded that Beethoven intended this more elaborate piano version to go with the string quintet arrangement.
Why the chamber version? According to Küthen, it dates from spring 1807, shortly after the premiere in Vienna of the original Op. 58 concerto at a concert presented by Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. It was fairly common practice at the time for composers or arrangers to produce chamber versions of large-scale works, in order to make possible smaller-venue performances, sometimes with the patron as performer. Thus Beethoven may have written the altered piano part at Prince Lobkowitz’s request.
Dr. Barry Cooper of the University of Manchester in England disagrees with Küthen’s thesis, and believes that the embellishments in Beethoven’s hand, admittedly incomplete and sketchy, were not meant for a chamber version, but perhaps for a performance of the original concerto he planned for himself. Beethoven likely viewed a piano concerto as dynamic and evolving rather than static and immutable. Nevertheless, Küthen’s arguments for his reconstructed chamber version, presented in the Beethoven Journal in 1998, are persuasive.
Whatever the origins of this chamber version of the fourth piano concerto, to present a performance of it is surely a fascinating and worthwhile pursuit. It is not merely a scaled-down piano concerto, but a chamber work in its own right, worth a listen.
All the best,
Teresa
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." ~ The Cheshire Cat
Author of the novel "Creating Will"
Author of the novel "Creating Will"
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Lots of luck, Teresa! From the recording I heard of your Mozart Concerto I expect this will also be a very fine performance!
Last edited by Donald Isler on Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Donald Isler
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Beethoven
Dear Teresa,
Knowing you and your capability for excellent work, I am sure, this will be a performance well worth hearing. We will be thinking of you on Sunday.
Best of luck,
Yours,
Agnes.
Knowing you and your capability for excellent work, I am sure, this will be a performance well worth hearing. We will be thinking of you on Sunday.
Best of luck,
Yours,
Agnes.
Re: Beethoven performance upcoming, yikes!
I find this very interesting and I would love to hear the recording. I'm sure you will be great!!Teresa B wrote:Hi all,
In one week I will have the opportunity to play the Beethoven PC no 4, chamber version. Wish me LUCK! (please?)
Meanwhile, if anyone is interested, this is a little piece I wrote for the program, and also the C.O.O.F. website:
About the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 Chamber Version
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58, is well-loved and oft-performed. But it is little known that a chamber version of the work exists. Or does it? An interesting controversy swirls around this point. Dr. Hans-Werner Küthen, a musicologist at the Beethoven Archives in Bonn, has reconstructed this version of the concerto and published it in 1995. He took an existing arrangement of the work for string quintet by Beethoven’s contemporary Possinger, and paired it with an embellished solo piano part written by Beethoven himself. This piano part is currently housed in Vienna. The string parts survive without an associated piano part, and the piano part derives from the first copyist’s score, on which Beethoven sketched annotations above the piano solo line. These annotations include over 100 bars of embellishments and changes to the original piano score. Küthen put together evidence including markings on both scores by Beethoven and Possinger, and concluded that Beethoven intended this more elaborate piano version to go with the string quintet arrangement.
Why the chamber version? According to Küthen, it dates from spring 1807, shortly after the premiere in Vienna of the original Op. 58 concerto at a concert presented by Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. It was fairly common practice at the time for composers or arrangers to produce chamber versions of large-scale works, in order to make possible smaller-venue performances, sometimes with the patron as performer. Thus Beethoven may have written the altered piano part at Prince Lobkowitz’s request.
Dr. Barry Cooper of the University of Manchester in England disagrees with Küthen’s thesis, and believes that the embellishments in Beethoven’s hand, admittedly incomplete and sketchy, were not meant for a chamber version, but perhaps for a performance of the original concerto he planned for himself. Beethoven likely viewed a piano concerto as dynamic and evolving rather than static and immutable. Nevertheless, Küthen’s arguments for his reconstructed chamber version, presented in the Beethoven Journal in 1998, are persuasive.
Whatever the origins of this chamber version of the fourth piano concerto, to present a performance of it is surely a fascinating and worthwhile pursuit. It is not merely a scaled-down piano concerto, but a chamber work in its own right, worth a listen.
All the best,
Teresa
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Teresa,
Of course, I also wish you the best with this performance. I know it will be great!
As for the piano sextet itself, I have the recording by Levin and soloists of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire &c, and I must say, even though it may be "cobbled together" it certainly stands well on its own. Hans-Werner Küthen's liner notes present a very interesting background story, clearly he believes that Pössinger and Beethoven worked together on the project, since they also did quite a bit of work together on both versions of the D major concerto (violin & piano) at the same time. Anyway, it is a most enjoyable piece, I wish I could be there to hear you play it.
Of course, I also wish you the best with this performance. I know it will be great!
As for the piano sextet itself, I have the recording by Levin and soloists of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire &c, and I must say, even though it may be "cobbled together" it certainly stands well on its own. Hans-Werner Küthen's liner notes present a very interesting background story, clearly he believes that Pössinger and Beethoven worked together on the project, since they also did quite a bit of work together on both versions of the D major concerto (violin & piano) at the same time. Anyway, it is a most enjoyable piece, I wish I could be there to hear you play it.
Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong
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Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
- HL Mencken
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
- HL Mencken
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Teresa,
I play your earlier Mozart CD in my office about once a week!
So I'm eager to get the next one.
You'll be fantastic! Just concentrate on the music and forget about HMOs and getting paid for your work.
All the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I play your earlier Mozart CD in my office about once a week!
So I'm eager to get the next one.
You'll be fantastic! Just concentrate on the music and forget about HMOs and getting paid for your work.
All the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein
Hi all,
For anyone who's interested, I managed to reach the last chord of the Beethoven yesterday at the same time as the strings, a venerable achievement in my book!
It went well, although I bobbled a few arpeggios and hit a wrong note or three, but amazingly, the audience did not notice!
I thought we would have a CD, but they did a video, so we shall have a DVD--I don't know what sort of sound quality it will have. (It was at least a professional production company.) After I hear it, if I think it's acceptable, I'll certainly send one to anyone who would like it.
Thanks to all who offered up good wishes!
Teresa
For anyone who's interested, I managed to reach the last chord of the Beethoven yesterday at the same time as the strings, a venerable achievement in my book!
It went well, although I bobbled a few arpeggios and hit a wrong note or three, but amazingly, the audience did not notice!
I thought we would have a CD, but they did a video, so we shall have a DVD--I don't know what sort of sound quality it will have. (It was at least a professional production company.) After I hear it, if I think it's acceptable, I'll certainly send one to anyone who would like it.
Thanks to all who offered up good wishes!
Teresa
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." ~ The Cheshire Cat
Author of the novel "Creating Will"
Author of the novel "Creating Will"
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Teresa B wrote:I managed to reach the last chord of the Beethoven yesterday at the same time as the strings, a venerable achievement in my book!
That's all that counts!
A Post of the Day Award to you, Teresa, with the pink noodle cluster for special achievement.
Corlyss
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
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Congrats!Teresa B wrote:Hi all,
For anyone who's interested, I managed to reach the last chord of the Beethoven yesterday at the same time as the strings, a venerable achievement in my book!
It went well, although I bobbled a few arpeggios and hit a wrong note or three, but amazingly, the audience did not notice!
I thought we would have a CD, but they did a video, so we shall have a DVD--I don't know what sort of sound quality it will have. (It was at least a professional production company.) After I hear it, if I think it's acceptable, I'll certainly send one to anyone who would like it.
Thanks to all who offered up good wishes!
Teresa
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Concert
Dear Teresa,
Now I look forward to the DVD.
Love,
Agnes.
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Now I look forward to the DVD.
Love,
Agnes.
------------------
Re: Concert
Count me in for the DVD and congratulations.Agnes Selby wrote:Dear Teresa,
Now I look forward to the DVD.
Love,
Agnes.
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