Publications of the Year 1801
The published works were the Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 15, dedicated “À son Altesse Madame la Princesse Odescalchi née Keglevics”; the Sonata for Pianoforte and Horn, Op. 17, dedicated “À Madame la Baronne de Braun”; the Quintet for Pianoforte, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Op. 16, dedicated “À son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince Régnant de Schwarzenberg.” These three works were announced by Mollo and Co. on March 21. Furthermore, the music to “Prometheus,” arranged for Pianoforte (according to Czerny by the composer) and dedicated “A sua Altezza la Signora Principessa Lichnowsky, nata Contessa Thun,” published in June by Artaria as Op. 27; “6 Variations très faciles” on an original theme in G, announced by Johann Traeg as absolutely new on August 11, sketched in the preceding year but probably completed in this; the Sonatas, Op. 23 and 24, dedicated “À Monsieur le Comte Maurice de Fries,” announced on October 28; the six Quartets, Op. 18, dedicated “À son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince Régnant de Lobkowitz,” announced (second series) on October 28 by Mollo. The Pianoforte Concerto in B-flat, Op. 19, dedicated “À Monsieur Charles Nikl Noble de Nikelsberg,” and the Symphony in C, Op. 21, dedicated “À son Excellence Monsieur le Baron van Swieten,” were published by Hoffmeister and Kühnel of Leipsic certainly before the end of the year, since they reached Vienna on January 16, and were advertised there. An earlier Leipsic edition has not been found. The two Violin Sonatas in A minor and F major were dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries and were originally intended to be coupled in a single opus number (23), as appears from the preliminary announcement by Mollo in the “Wiener Zeitung” of October 28, 1801, and also by the designation of the second as “No. 2,” on a copy of Op 24. Sketches of the two found in the Petters sketchbook are evidence of their simultaneous origin.
The Pianoforte Sonata, Op. 26, had its origin, according to Nottebohm’s study of the sketches, in the year 1800; but Shedlock (in the “Musical Times” of August, 1892) prints a few beginnings of the first movement in B minor (!) which probably date farther back, perhaps to the Bonn period. A young composer,[106] Ferdinand Paër (born at Parma in 1771), since the beginning of 1798 had produced on the court stage a series of pleasing and popular works. Laboring in a sphere so totally different from that of Beethoven, there was no rivalry between them and their relations were cordial and friendly. On June 6th of this summer Paër brought out a heroic opera, “Achilles,” which “was received with a storm of approval and deserved it,” says the correspondent of the “Zeitung für die Elegante Welt.” Paër in his old age told Ferdinand Hiller a characteristic anecdote of Beethoven which cannot possibly be true in connection with his “Leonore,” as he, by a lapse of memory, related it, but is, undoubtedly, in connection with “Achilles.” It was to the effect that Beethoven went with Paër to the theatre where an opera by the latter was performing. He sat beside him and after he had time and again cried out, “Ah, que c’est beau, que c’est intéressant!” had finally said: “Il faut que je compose cela.” The correspondent just cited complains of the “want of character” in the marches in “Achilles” and incidentally confirms one of Ries’s “Notizen”: “The funeral march in A-flat minor in the Sonata dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky (Op. 26) was the result of the great praise with which the funeral march in Paër’s ‘Achilles’ was received by Beethoven’s friends.” Of that Sonata, completed this year, Czerny says: “When Cramer was in Vienna and was creating a great sensation not only by his playing but also by the three sonatas which he dedicated to Haydn (of which the first in A-flat, ¾ time, awakened great amazement), Beethoven, who had been pitted against Cramer, wrote the A-flat Sonata, Op. 26, in which there is purposely a reminder of the Clementi-Cramer passage-work in the Finale. The Marcia funebre was composed on the impulsion of a very much admired funeral march of Paër’s, and added to the Sonata.”
Whether or not this funeral march was really occasioned by Paër’s “Achilles” or one from another opera by Paër (since “Achilles” was performed for the first time in 1801, and the older first sketches already contemplated a “pezzo caracteristico p. e. una marcia in as moll”), is of subordinate interest, since the legend has nothing whatever to do with reminiscences, but only with its tremendous superiority to the music by Paër.
The enigmatic “Sonata pour M.” in the sketches for this sonata no doubt means “for Mollo” simply. The splendid print in facsimile, published by Erich Praeger from the autograph discovered by him, gives information concerning the sketches and also concerning the legends which refer to the origin of the different movements.
The C-Sharp Minor Sonata
Of the two Pianoforte Sonatas, Op. 27, the first (in E-flat) was dedicated to the Princess Johanna von Liechtenstein, née the Landgravine Fürstenberg, the second to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. It is apparent, therefore, that they appeared separately at first. Sketches of the first show that they originated in 1801. Both are designated “quasi fantasia,” which plainly indicates a departure from the customary structure. The C-sharp minor Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, was dedicated to the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, who at this time (1801-1802) was Beethoven’s pupil and indubitably must be counted amongst the ladies who, for a time at least, were near to his heart. Concerning this, later. As his relationship to the Countess has been exaggerated, so also more significance has been attached to this sonata than is justified from a sober point of view. Beethoven himself was vexed that more importance was attached to it than to other sonatas which he held in higher esteem (Op. 78, for instance), simply because it had become popular. Its popularity was subsequently heightened by the designations “Arbor Sonata” and “Moonlight Sonata” and its creation into a sort of love-song without words, especially after Schindler had identified the Countess Guicciardi with the “Immortal Beloved” of the famous love-letter. It was a long time before attention was paid to a letter written by Dr. G. L. Grosheim, to Beethoven, dated November 10, 1819, in which occur the words: “You wrote me that at Seume’s grave (in Teplitz) you had placed yourself among his admirers.... It is a desire which I cannot suppress, that you, Mr. Chapelmaster, would give to the world your wedding with Seume—I mean your Fantasia in C-sharp minor and the ‘Beterin’.”[107]
The autograph of the Sonata in D, Op. 28, bears the inscription “Gran Sonata, Op. 28, 1801, da L. van Beethoven.” It appeared in print in 1802, having been advertised in the “Wiener Zeitung” of August 14, from the Industriekontor, with the dedication, “À Monsieur Joseph Noble de Sonnenfels, Conseiller aulique et Sécrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie des Beaux Arts.” Touching the personality of Joseph Noble de Sonnenfels something may be learned from W. Nagel’s book, “Beethoven und seine Klaviersonaten,” and also from Willibald Müller’s biography of him. At the time, Sonnenfels was nearly 70 years old and, so far as is known, was not an intimate friend of Beethoven’s; the dedication was probably nothing more than a mark of respect for the man of brains with whose ideas Beethoven was in sympathy. The single clue as to the origin of the work is the date (1801) on the autograph; sketches seem to be lacking. The sunny disposition of the music is the only evidence, and this is internal. The work early acquired the sobriquet “Sonata pastorale” (it was first printed by A. Cranz), and the designation is not inept.
The String Quintet in C, Op. 29
The String Quintet, Op. 29, as is evidenced by an inscription on the score, was composed in 1801 and published by Breitkopf and Härtel in 1802, towards the close of the year. Simultaneously it appeared from the press of Artaria. This second edition has a history. According to Ries the Quintet