You might have heard of Beethoven’s 5th symphony or Appasionata sonata, but have you ever heard his Scottish songs, string quintet, piano fantasy or horn sonata? Last one was so poorly written for that instrument, Beethoven decided that it could better be played on cello than on the originally intended horn. If the op 17 is a little slight, the other works are truly fine works and the performances absolutely worth hearing. Hope you will enjoy them as well…!!
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1828)
-Scottish songs op 108 (1812)
-no 16 “Could this ill world”
-no 13 “Come fill, fill, my good fellow!”
-no 03 “Oh! Sweet were the hours”
-no 20 “Faithfu' Johnie"
-no 02 “Sunset”
Christian Gerhaher, baritone
Gerold Huber, piano
-String Quintet in C major op 29 (1801)
Tokyo String Quartet
Pinchas Zuckerman, viola
-Fantasie op 77 (1809)
Jonathan Biss, piano
-Cello version of Horn sonata in F major op 17 (1800)
Guido Schiefen, cello
Alfredo Perl, piano
(Web player link)
The 'Sonata for Pianoforte and Horn' Op.17 (its title by Beethoven by the way, not 'horn sonata') has a piano part that is actually more difficult to play than the horn part. The horn part itself is very well written for the horn of the time, exploiting the charm of the contrasting timbres of the valveless instrument. It was so well received at its 1st performance by PUNTO with Beethoven virtually improvising the piano part, that it had to be repeated in its entirety as an 'encore'. My strong conviction about the 'cello version ( and there are corresponding arrangements for both violin and oboe) is that it was simply to make more money for the composer!
ReplyDelete