As part of the international celebrations this year and next year, in honor of Beethoven, the Schiller Institute is happy to inaugurate a new feature on our website. We will regularly post selections of Beethoven’s music with short discussions of the pieces.
Beethoven: Spark of Joy – Oratorio, Op. 85, Christ on the Mount of Olives Beethoven’s little-known oratorio “Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op. 85”, is considered a failure by most critics and scholars today, and they insist that Beethoven also considered it so. Yet, despite its many detractors, it was a great success in […]
Beethoven: Spark of Joy – Piano concerto No. 3, Op. 37 in C-minor. Beethoven premiered his third piano concerto in 1803 at a massive benefit concert, which also featured the premieres of his Second Symphony, the oratorio “Christ on the Mount of Olives”, and a reprise of the first symphony (premiered a year earlier). As […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19 What was published as Beethoven’s second piano concerto was actually composed between 1787 and 1789 while Beethoven still lived in Bonn. He took it with him to Vienna, probably premiered it at the Burgtheater in 1795, and wrote a different finale for a 1798 […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 Beethoven’s five piano concerti were written between 1793 and 1809. The first two were quite experimental, intending to fill the palpable void in Vienna for this genre of composition left by the death of Mozart in 1791. By the third concerto […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Opus 9, no. 3, string trio: Foreshadows Later Great Works The third of the Opus 9 string trios is a masterwork in C-minor, the tonality associated with some of Beethoven’s most dramatic works (think of the “Pathétique” and Opus 111 piano sonatas, for example).This is Beethoven’s farewell to the string […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – String Trio, Opus 9, No. 2 The Opus 9 no. 2 string trio differs from its siblings in its quietly introspective character, with Beethoven’s melodic genius fully on display, especially in the second and fourth movements.Here it is in full score, performed by the Grumiaux Trio. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Opus 9, No. 1: A Gem Trio Dedicated to an Irishman Who Served in the Russian Army! Beethoven’s Opus 9 is a delightful set of three string trios, deserving of broader popularity than they enjoy today. They were dedicated to one of his early patrons, Count Johann George von Browne, […]
Beethoven: Spark of Joy – Opus 3, his first trio, reveals echoes of Mozart’s Divertimento K. 563 Beethoven’s earliest chamber works were composed for string trio (violin, viola, and cello). During the 1790s he published five string trios and the Opus 8 Serenade before abandoning the genre in favor of other combinations – notably including […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Beethoven’s contribution to a Dialogue of Cultures: his “Spanish Songs” George Thomson was an Edinburgh-based publisher and collector of folk music, who commissioned classical arrangements of traditional folk melodies from composers such as Pleyel, Kozeluch, Weber, and Haydn. Beethoven, a passionate believer in the brotherhood of man, wholeheartedly took up […]
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Op. 4, Wind Quintet Despite its high opus number (103), the Wind Octet was composed in 1792 when Beethoven was still in service to the Elector in Bonn. The Elector, Maximilian Franz, was a great lover of Tafelmusik – background music to be played at dinner – and maintained an […]