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, Mozart, Bach: A musical dialogue. Any discussion of musical masters in dialogue must acknowledge the towering figure of Johann Sebastian Bach. The C-minor series we are about to explore had as its genesis Bach’s Musical Offering – a set of pieces based on a theme proposed to him in 1747 by Frederick II, King […]
Mozart, Beethoven: A musical dialogue. Notes by Margaret Scialdone. Beethoven ‘s use of thematic material from Mozart was not limited to opera. Note the development of the opening theme of Mozart’s C-minor Piano Concerto, K491, in Beethoven’s C-minor Piano Concerto, Opus 37. (We’ll be looking more at the C-minor key in the coming days.) First, […]
Mozart, Beethoven: A musical dialogue Notes by Margaret Scialdone, In 1798, Beethoven turned again to Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”, this time composing twelve variations on Papageno’s aria, “Ein Madchen oder Weibchen” in which the ridiculous bird-catcher expresses his desperation for a mate. The translation of the words to the Ein Madchen oder Weibchen are: […]
Mozart, Beethoven dialogue continued Notes by Margaret Scialdone. We continue the Mozart-Beethoven dialogue with Beethoven’s 7 Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe Fühlen” (‘A man who can feel love must have a good heart’), the beautiful duet sung by Pamina and Papageno in the first act of “The Magic Flute”. Mozart’s opera employs fantastical characters […]
Mozart – Beethoven a musical dialogue over time. Notes by Margaret Scialdone. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, the story of a dissolute lecher who is finally dragged to Hell, provided a rich source of material for Beethoven. In the opening scene, Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore, who has rushed to avenge the rape of his daughter, […]
Mozart’s birthday; Beethoven’s regard for him. Notes by Margaret Scialdone. ~ As January 27th is the 265th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, we’ll step away from the sonatas for a few days and allow Beethoven to pay homage to his great predecessor. The teenaged Beethoven first went to Vienna in 1787, and it’s believed that […]
We continue the commemoration of Mozart’s Birthday in the Beethoven Year with one of the last piano works Beethoven ever composed: the Diabelli Variations. The publisher Anton Diabelli wrote a simple waltz and circulated it to 13 composers, requesting a single variation from each. Beethoven initially scoffed at the idea, but then produced a mammoth […]
Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, the story of a dissolute lecher who is finally dragged to Hell, provided a rich source of material for Beethoven. In the opening scene, Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore, who has rushed to avenge the rape of his daughter, Donna Anna. The dying Commendatore, Don Giovanni, and his servant Leporello sing […]
Notes by Margaret Scialdone Both of the Opus 27 sonatas are titled “Sonata quasi una Fantasia” (‘like a fantasy’). The first is frequently neglected in favor of its famous sibling, the so-called “Moonlight”, but everyone who has ever played it loves it. It was dedicated to his student Princess Josephine von Liechtenstein, whose husband maintained […]
Notes by Margaret Scialdone In a radical departure from the sonata form, Beethoven opens his Opus 26 piano sonata with a theme and variations followed by a scherzo, and then the famous “Funeral March on the Death of a Hero” (an orchestral arrangement of which was played at Beethoven’s funeral). After his death, this became […]