N.B. All the pieces which I have offered you are entirely new—since unfortunately so many unlucky old things of mine have been sold and stolen.
It was through the printing of the letters to Breitkopf and Härtel that the fact became known that Beethoven originally had intended to dedicate the Variations in E-flat to Abbé Stadler. The Rondo in G, which was announced by Hoffmeister and Kühnel on March 19, 1803, was published in connection with the Rondo in C which had already appeared in 1798, as Op. 51, Nos. 1 and 2. It was originally dedicated to Countess Guicciardi, but Beethoven gave her the Sonata in C-sharp minor in exchange for it and inscribed the Rondo to Countess Henriette Lichnowsky. This would seem to indicate that it was finished before the Sonata, probably in 1801. Nottebohm has proved in his study of the Kessler sketchbook that the sixth of the “Bagatelles,” in D major, had its origin in 1802, when Beethoven was at work on the second Symphony.[138]
End of Volume I
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “Briefe,” II. 354, 355.
[2] This was the beginning of the career of Salomon. He became concertmaster to Prince Henry of Prussia, played in Paris, and in 1781 took up a residence in London where, as violinist and conductor, he became brilliantly active and successful. He made repeated visits to Bonn, once in 1790, when he was on his way to London accompanied by Haydn.
[3] Reichardt, “Theaterkalender, 1778,” p. 99.
[4] To her Beethoven dedicated his variations on “Venni Amore.”
[5] In Fétis’ “Biographie universelle” (new ed.) several of these names are misprinted. They are corrected here from Mr. Jacobs’ letter to A. W. T.