notation and performance

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C am b rid ge U n iv e rsity P ress 9 78 -0 -5 2 1-4 16 4 4 -3 - P erfo rm in g B eeth o ven E dited b y Robin Stow ell E x c e rp t M ore in fo rm ation

1 B E E T H O V E N ’S BASSO C O N T I N U O : N O T A T I O N A ND P E R F O R M A N C E T I B O R S Z Á SZ

Malcolm Frager in memóriám It was n o t long ago that L ondon’s musical public was sw ept into a controversy triggered o ff by A dolf A ber’s strong words that graced the first page o f The Musical Times o fju n e 1948: the recent [Adolf] Busch concerts at Kingsway Hall stood out as high-lights of the concert season . . . the chief factor, it cannot be doubted, was the conviction that the music of Bach and Handel was being performed in the only right and proper way . . . many in the audience heard for the first time in their lives how these works ought to sound. To come straight to the point: the fundamental difference between a Busch performance and a normal ‘modem’ performance lies in the treatment o f that one line, the basso continuo. It is lamentable that so many artists in these days have forgotten that this line was written, beyond any doubt, for a keyboard instrum ent. . T h e pioneering efforts o f Busch and A ber have long since been fulfilled, at least in th e sense that even am ong ‘m o d e m ’ perform ances (to use A ber’s term ) o f the B aroque orchestral and choral repertoire, the presence o f keyboard continuo is the rule rather than the exception. If Aber and Busch returned today to champion the cause o f reinstating Beethoven’s figured and unfigured bass to its rightful place in musical perform ance, their task w ould be m uch m ore difficult. First o f all, they w ould n o t find a m odem edition o f B eethoven’s Materialien zum Generalbass,2 or a m odem edition that accurately reflects the thrust o f Begth o v en ’s notation w ith regard to keyboard con tin u o practices in his piano concertos3 and masses.4 Furtherm ore, if they tried to produce 1 A dolf Aber, ‘O n the C ontinuo in Bach’, Musical Times, 89 (1948), pp. 169-71 and 367—8. 2 T he Materialien —a compilation o f rules and examples for the notation and realisation o f keyboard har m ony and accom panim ent - represents the beginning section o f Beethovenautograph 75 preserved in Vienna’s Archiv der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. 3

In all m odem editions, the continuo and cue notation found in the original editions w ere ignored. U nder Beethoven’s supervision, the five piano concertos and the Triple Concerto O p. 56 were published w ith a figured o r unfigured bass engraved w ith the same size noteheads as the keyboard solos; by con trast, instrumental cues w ere consistently represented by small-size noteheads.

4 In all m odem editions, the figured-bass notation found in the original edition o f the Mass in C m ajor

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a m odem edition incorporating B eethoven’s continuo instructions, they w ould first have to solve the problem o f evaluating the function o f B eethoven’s figured bass:5 does it exclusively represent authentic keyboard co ntinuo, o r is it also used to represent harm onic cues o f the orchestral activity? In a recent article devoted to B eethoven’s Piano C oncerto N o. 5 in Et major6 (written in 1809 and published first in England and then in Germany),7 I attem pted to show that the com poser’s detailed figured bass instructions clearly require the soloist to realise the continuo in long tuttis w hile prohibiting the realisation o f figures that occur in very short ones. In other words, the overw helm ing majority o f the autograph and printed figures in the ‘E m peror’ represent genuine keyboard continuo that m ust be realised in performances w ith full orchestra.8 Linda Ferguson’s evaluation o f B eethoven’s tutti notation in the ‘E m peror’ is correct: ‘the soloist w ould be left to play . . . all o f the longer tuttis . . . plus by far the majority o f short tuttis within long solo sections’.9 Also correct is Ferguson’s con clusion that keyboard continuo is required in all o f B eethoven’s piano concertos and the T riple C oncerto for piano, violin and cello in C m ajor O p. 56.10 T he only exception is the slow m ovem ent o f the Piano C oncerto in G m ajor O p. 58 w here keyboard continuo is excluded." B u t every solution o f a problem is a new problem . N o w that the n eed for continuo in B eethoven’s piano concertos does seem to have been established, an even thornier problem remains: how do w e realise the com poser’s directions in performance? Because no nineteenth-century realisation o f B eethoven’s concertos is kn o w n to have survived, the difficulties o f solving this new problem are consid erable. H ow ever, this essay aims to provide some practical guidelines for realising B eeth o v en ’s co n tin u o indications in his five piano concertos and the T riple C oncerto, as well as in his Mass in C m ajor O p. 86 and the Missa solemnis O p. 123. Op. 86 was altered, and the autograph and printed figures for the Missa solemnis were suppressed; in both works, the undocumented addition o f the term Organo in Breitkopf and Härtel’s Gesamtausgabe obscures the m eaning o f the original notation. 5 Beethoven’s figured bass in sketches and cue-staves was never transferred into published scores and lies outside the scope o f this essay. 6 T ibor Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” Concerto: Basso C ontinuo or Orchestral Cues?’, Early KeyboardJournal, 6 -7 (1988-9), pp. 5—71. 7 T he English edition (1810) reproduces only the composer’s detailed col Basso adaptation o f the string bass to the keyboard idiom; by contrast, the Germ an edition (1811) reproduces the almost full range o f Beethoven’s autograph continuo instructions. 8 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, pp. 62-3. 9 Linda Faye Ferguson, 'Col Basso and Generalbass in M ozart’s Keyboard Concertos: Notation, Performance Theory, and Practice’ (PhD diss. University o f Princeton 1983), p. 271. This author disagrees, however, w ith some o f Ferguson’s interpretations o f w here continuo is to be provided. 10 Ferguson, 'Col Basso and Generalbass in M ozart’s Keyboard Concertos’, pp. 243-71. 11 ibid., pp. 265—8.


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Beethoven’s basso continuo

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B E E T H O V E N ’S C O N T I N U O T E R M I N O L O G Y : D E F I N I T I O N S A N D COM M ENTS

W h en evaluating the explicitness o f autograph and printed continuo indications, B eethoven’s Materialien zum Generalbass (1809) provides a convenient dividing line.12 In works published before the Materialien, Beethoven left the realisation o f continuo to th e ingenuity o f the perform er, w hereas in w orks published thereafter, he explicidy notated h ow it is to be realised. W ritten probably right after his com pilation o f the Materialien,13 the unsurpassed clarity o f B eeth oven’s continuo instructions in the full-score autographs o f the ‘E m peror’ is due in part to the presence o f one technical term: tasto solo (t.s.). W ith it, B eethoven indicated w h en the soloist m ust abstain from realising co ntinuo.14 W hereas B eethoven never used t.s. in his earlier w ork published w ith figured or unfigured bass, he consistendy included it in works published after his com pilation o f the Materialien. In effect, every technical term used in autograph, manuscript, and printed sources o f B eethoven’s works finds its definition in the com poser’s Materialien. B ut since the Materialien was never assessed in terms o f its relevance for perform ance practice, B eethoven’s definitions need to be quoted, translated, and com m ented upon. For readers unfamiliar w ith B eethoven’s continuo15 and cue16notation in autograph and printed sources, tw o tables follow.17 Table 1.1. is then discussed in detail. 12 According to Gustav N ottebohm , at least the first sixteen pages o f the Materialien w ere w ritten during the second quarter o f 1809 (‘Beethovens theoretische Studien’, Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 41 (1863), pp. 689-90). 13 T h e date 1809 is inscribed by Beethoven in his full-score autograph o f the ‘Em peror’. 14 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto', pp. 10-14. In the present essay, the term con tinuo will consistendy and exclusively m ean the right hand’s activity o f providing accompaniment in tuttis. Nevertheless, the absence o f continuo activity does not necessarily imply the absence o f keyboard sound: it may still be present through the left hand’s customary activity o f adapting the string bass to the keyboard idiom. 15 For details on B eethoven’s continuo notation, see Szász, ‘Figured Bass in B eethoven’s “E m peror” C oncerto’, pp. 10-28. T hough listed in the category o f continuo notation, Beethoven’s figured and unfigured bass may exceptionally represent harm onic cues o f the orchestral activity (Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, pp. 44—54). In Table 1.1, the term ‘idiomatic bass’ is used only for works in w hich the notated bass line contains fragments that represent a purposeful adaptation o f the string bass to the keyboard idiom. 16 For details on B eethoven’s cue notation, see Szász, ‘Figured Bass in B eethoven’s “Em peror” Concerto’, pp. 8-9. In Table 1.2, the term ‘cues’ refers to instrumental cues in the right- or left-hand staff. T he term Clavierauszug means the m odem equivalent o f a piano reduction. D ue to carelessness, some instrumental cues w hich appear in the original editions o f B eethoven’s works were engraved in im proper large-size notes. 17 In the tw o tables, autograph sources are reduced to those used as Kopiaturvorlage or, w hen not extant, to a relevant autograph source; printed sources are limited to the last version supervised by Beethoven.


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Table 1.1. ‘C ol basso co n tin u o ' notation in piano concertos and masses B eethoven autographs u editions (Y = present; N = absent; ? = not know n) Opus numbers Figured bass

—autograph —edition Tasto solo —autograph - edition All’ottava —autograph - edition Unisono —autograph —edition Telemannbogen —autograph - edition Unfigured bass —autograph —edition Realisation - autograph —edition Idiomatic bass —autograph - edition

15

19

37

56

Y Y N N N Y N Y N N Y N N N N N

N N N N N N N N N N Y Y N N Y Y

N N N N N N N N N N Y Y N N N N

N N N N N N N N N N Y Y N N N N

58

73

?

Y Y Y Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y N N Y Y

N ? N ? N 7

N ? N ? Y ? N ? N

86

123

?

Y Y Y Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y N Y Y Y

Y ? Y ? N ? N ? N ? Y ? N ? N

T a sto solo (t.s.) Definition: ‘t.s. signifies that one should depress only the keys notated [in the lefthand staff] w ith o u t adding any accom panim ent [w ith the right hand], until the figures return [to indicate the resum ption o f tw o-handed accom panim ent]’.18 By its very nature, t.s. qualifies the function o f figures im mediately surrounding it. Because t.s. designates a m om entary cessation o f right-hand accom panim ent, its occurrence in a given tutti substantiates the logical inference that the figures that precede and follow its advent represent authentic keyboard continuo.19W h en the 18 N ottebohm , ‘Beethovens theoretische Studien’, Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 41 (1863), p. 688. ‘T.S. zeigt an, daß man nur die vorgeschriebene Taste ohne alle w eitere Begleitung anschlagen solle, bis w ieder Ziffern kom m en.’ B eethoven’s sentence represents a conscious rew ording (i.e. not an absent-minded copy) o f Daniel Gotdob T ürk’s definition in Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbaßspielen (Halle and Leipzig 1791), p. 29. Both définirions are identical in effect w ith those o fjo h an n Albrechtsberger, Friedrich W ilhelm M arpurg, C.P.E. Bach, Johann Michael Bach, Johann Joseph Klein, G eorg Simon Löhlein, August E berhard M üller, Joachim Hoffm an and Adolph B ernhard M arx. B eethoven’s accompanying musical example is not reproduced, since it is an exact copy o f T ürk’s original. 19 T he presence o f l.s. constitutes an effective way to identify authentic continuo practices. Significandy, the Archduke R udolph’s theoretical figured bass drills do not contain a single occurrence o f t.s.; see Susan Kagan, Anhduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s Patron, Pupil, and Friend: His Life and Music (Stuyvesant, N.Y., 1988), pp. 58-67.


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Table 1.2. Cue notation in piano concertos and masses B eethoven Autographs v Editions (Y=present; N =absent; ?= not known) Opus numbers

15

19

37

56

58

73

86

123

N N N

Y Y Y

N Y N

Y Y Y

? Y ?

Y Y Y

?

Cues —L.H.

—autograph —edition —autograph

N ?

N N Y

Clavierauszug

- edition - autograph

N N N

Y N

Y N

Y N

Y ?

Y ?

Y N

N N N

N N N

N N N

Y ?

N ?

N N N

Cues —R.H.

—edition Separate cue system —autograph —edition

N N

Y

Y N N N N

N

keyboard player is expected to provide uninterrupted right-hand accom panim ent in a given tutti, the term t.s. must, o f course, be absent during that tutti. T h e above continuo notation limits the freedom o f the perform er to the maxi m u m ex ten t by prescribing every detail o f accom panim ent: rig h t-h an d activity (figures) v inactivity (t.s.), and left-hand activity (the purposefid adaptation o f the string bass-line to the keyboard idiom ) v inactivity (rests o r instrum ental cues entered in the left-hand staff). A m ong B eethoven’s concertos, only the ‘E m peror’ contains such detailed continuo instructions. In th e concertos published before the com pilation o f the Materialien (i.e. N os. 1 -4 and the T riple C oncerto), B eethoven did n o t curtail the freedom o f the soloist. In these works, the total absence o f the term t.s. suggests that the soloist is free to determ ine the specific alternation o f the three com plem entary forms o f accompaniment: playing w ith both hands, w ith the left hand alone, or w ith neither. In the original editions o f these works, the tutti notation is lim ited to a constant flow o f figures (as in the Piano C oncerto in C m ajor O p. 15) o r o f m elodic and harm onic cues (as in the other concertos). W h ether figured o r unfigured, the basso continuo line is engraved w ith the same size noteheads as the solo passages, whereas cues are distinguished by small-size noteheads. T h e com poser’s sparse figured bass notation in the fiill-score autograph o f the Piano C oncerto O p. 15 will be dis cussed later.

A ll’o ttav a a n d u n iso n o Definition: ‘In places m arked w ith unisono (un., all’unisono, all’ottava) the right hand m ust play along w ith the left by reproducin g the latter’s pitches at the higher1


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octave; w h ere the accom panist is to resum e playing chords, figures m ust be recom m enced. ’20 T h e term all’ottava is often m istaken for the term col ottava bassa. T h e tw o terms should never be interchanged, for one designates the right hand’s continuo activity (paralleling the cello Une by playing single pitches at the higher octave - all’ottava), w hile the o th er designates the left hand’s idiom atic keyboard adaptation o f the string bass (doubling the cello line plus adding the double-bass pitch — col ottava bassa). C onfusing the tw o terms is an age-old problem that had already plagued the preparation o f b o th the English and the G erm an editions o f the ‘E m p ero r’.21 R ecendy, Ferguson has confused the tw o terms by equating the keyboard player’s activity o f reproducing ‘bo th cello and double-bass pitches’ w ith the indications all’ottava o r all’unisono.22 C onsequently, her assertion that the ‘E m peror’s autograph all’ottava indications are ‘sometimes w ritten simply as “8 ” ’ appears to be flawed.23 W h at Ferguson is probably referring to is B eethoven’s figure ‘8’ placed beneath the bass line, in w h ich case it represents n o t the right h an d ’s all’ottava b u t the left hand’s col ottava bassa activity.24 Nevertheless, w hen placed above the bass line, the figure ‘8‘ can indeed be used to represent the right han d ’s all’ottava activity.25 This notational alternative is m en tio n ed in B eethoven’s truncated sentence from the Materialien: ‘A uch ver mittelst der Zahl 8 8 8 oder abgekürzt 8 - .’26 According to B eethoven’s consistent notational custom , distinction betw een all’ottava and col ottava bassa is achieved through the placem ent o f the figure ‘8’ on the music staff. W hen placed above the bass note, ‘8 ’ always denotes the doubling o f the bass note at the higher octave (i.e. w ith the right hand); w hen placed below , ‘8’ always indicates the doubling o f the bass note at the low er octave (i.e. w ith the left hand). Because B eethoven preferred to reserve the term all’ottava as a nearly exclusive notational symbol for doubling a succession o f bass notes at the higher octave,27 his 20 Nottebohm , ‘Beethovens theoretische Studien’, p. 688. ‘Bei den m it unisono (un., all’unisono, all’ottava) bezeichneten Stellen spielt m an in der rechten H and und zwar die nächstliegende höhere O ktave mit; w o der Begleiter w ieder ganze Akkorde angeben soll, setzt man w ieder Ziffern hin.’ 21 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” Concerto’, p. 16, ns. 22 and 23; p. 21, Fig. 1; and p. 37, paragraphs 1 and 2. 22 Ferguson, 'Col Basso and Generalbass in M ozart’s Keyboard Concertos’, p. 235. 23 ibid., p. 268 24 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, p. 52, Ex. 16a. 25 ibid., p. 17, Ex. 3a, 1/71, downbeat. 26 N ottebohm , ‘Beethovens theoretische Studien’, p. 688. In T ü rk ’s original, the sentence is rounded off with these additional words: ‘pflegen Einige das all'unisono zu bezeichnen’. (Kurze Anweisung, p. 29). The completed sentence translates: ‘Some [composers] prefer to notate all’unisono by means o f a chain o f 8 8 8 or, in shortened form, 8 - ’ [placed above the bass notes in T ürk’s original example and its reproduction in B eethoven’s autograph]. 27 Missa solemnis, beginning o f Gloria.


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choice o f the numerical alternative (‘8’ placed above an isolated bass note) must not as a rule be equated w ith the sound o f an em pty octave. T he ftdl-score autograph o f the ‘E m peror’ and the realisation incorporated in the original edition o f the Missa solemnis clarify B eethoven’s use o f the num erical alternative: w hen placed above an isolated bass note, ‘8’ generally represents a full chord, its treble note doubling the bass pitch.28 O n e o f the m ost difficult interpretational problem s in B eethoven’s oeuvre arises through the presence o f t.s. coupled w ith the total absence o f all’ottava indications in th e original edition o f the Mass O p. 86. T h e und o cu m en ted all’ottava and Organo additions in B reitkopf and H ärtel’s Gesamtausgabe o f O p. 86 suggest that the editors’ interpretations o f the original edition are n o t always reliable.

T e le m a n n b o g e n (the arc o f T e le m a n n ).29 D efinition: ‘By means o f an arc certain composers indicate the dim inished triad, certain incom plete chords, suspensions, harm onic changes over an unchanged pitch, and o th er places that m ust be accom panied in the right hand w ith a tw o voiced texture.’30 B eeth o v en ’s Telemannbogen indications w ere consistently ignored in printed editions, though they are retained in the subscription copy o f the Missa solemnis purchased by th e K ing o f France.31 In the ‘E m p ero r’, B eeth o v en ’s use o f the Telemannbogen is lim ited to a single situation: the arc is placed above the figure ‘5’ in o rd er to alert the soloist that the chord to be realised m ust n o t contain any pitches in addition to those o f the dim inished triad.32 In the Missa solemnis, the arc is used in tw o situations. M ost com m only, it is used as in the ‘E m peror’;33 less frequendy, it indicates incom plete chords (such as tw o pitches at the interval o f a m ajor second and a perfect fourth respectively played above the bass).34 T he above Telemannbogen indications found in the m anuscript copy o f the Missa solemnis purchased by the K ing o f France are always correcdy realised. This same realisation was in co rp o rated (w ith m in o r changes) into the p rinted edition supervised by 28 ‘Emperor’, 1/62 and Missa solemnis, Kyrie, bar 128. In both, ‘8’ marks the resumption o f chordal continuo activity. 29 See W o lf H obohm , ‘D e r Telem annische B ogen’, Studien zur Auffährungspraxis und Interpretation der Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts, 32 (1987), pp. 32-5. 30 N ottebohm , ‘B eethovens theoretische Studien’, p. 688. ‘Verm ittelst eines O b e z e ic h n e n m anche Com ponisten der verm inderten Dreiklang, gewisse unvollständige Akkorde, Vorhalte, durchgehende H arm onien und andere nur zweistimmig zu begleitende Stellen.’ 31 Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, catalogued as L. 1121. 32 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in B eethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, p. 20, Ex 4 b, bar 251; and p. 22, n. 26. 33 Gloria, bar 115, second beat; Sanctus, bar 41, second beat; and Agnus dei, bar 240, downbeat. 34 Gloria, bar 334, downbeat, notated as a ‘4—2’ capped by a Telemannbogen.


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B eeth o v en .35 T h o u g h the origin o f the p rinted realisation is n o t kn o w n , it is obviously the w ork o f an experienced continuo player. T h at this person may have been B eethoven himself is certainly a possibility: in his early teens, he was employed b oth as a ‘Cem balo player in the orchestra, i.e. one w ho provides the thoroughbass during symphonies’, and as ‘C ourt Organist o f the Prince’.36 Because B eethoven had repeatedly authorised the incorporation o f this realisation into m anuscript copies and the original edition, it should no t be dismissed on the grounds o f its unknow n origin; in fact, it may be accepted as the last authoritative version o f the Mass.37 Therefore, organists can rely on the printed realisation (excepting obvious misprints o r mistakes) rather than attem pt to realise the com poser’s early version o f the piece as recorded in the figured bass notation o f the fiill-score autograph.38

P A R A L L E L S B E T W E E N M O Z A R T ’S A N D B E E T H O V E N ’ S S H O R T H A N D C O N T I N U O N O T A T I O N S IN F U L L - S C O R E A U T O G R A P H S

In the H enle edition o f the first three piano concertos, H ans-W em er K iithen has played dow n the continuo im plications o f the figured and unfigured bass found in the original editions o f these works. C iting an alleged absence o f autograph con tinuo indications in the full-score autographs, Kiithen has produced an edition that shows the soloist at rest in tuttis.39 By contrast, Ferguson has reasoned that a fiill-score autograph can be used as evidence o f perform ance practice only if it has been pre pared w ith the clear purpose o f serving as Kopiaturvorlage for the printed piano part.40 A m ong B eethoven’s piano concertos, only the fiill-score autograph o f the ‘Em peror’ fits this condition: in it, Beethoven has presented posterity w ith the most detailed per formance practice instructions that can be given w ithin the framework o f Generalbass notation: the right hand’s continuo activity (figures o r all’ottavas) or inactivity (f.s.), and the left hand’s idiomatic keyboard adaptation o f the string bass. 35 Aside from a few im provem ents in the realisation itself, the figured bass notation engraved in the original edition is inferior to that found in the copy purchased by the King o f France. 36 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 21 (1827), p. 346. ‘Im vierzehnten Jahre ward er Cembalist im Orchester, d.i. der bey Sym phonieen den Generalbass begleitete; im 16ten Hoforganist des Kurfürsten.’ 37 T h e term ‘authoritative’ is used in the sense defined by W illiam S. N ew m an, ‘O n the Problem o f D eterm ining Beethoven’s M ost Authoritative Lifetime Editions’, in Beiträge zur Beethoven-Bibliographie (M unich 1978), p. 128. 38

For example, in Gloria, bars 4, 38, 42, and 184—5, the organist should play all'ottava as in the realisation, and not t.s. as in the fiill-score autograph. T he undocum ented addition o f the term Organo in Breitkopf and Härtel's Gesamtausgabe suggests that the e diton did not understand the meaning o f Beethoven’s term tasto solo.

39 L. van Beethoven, ‘Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke’, III, Band 2, Klavierkonzerte I, ed. H .-W . Kiithen (M unich 1984). 40 Ferguson, ‘Col Basso and Generalbass in M ozart’s Keyboard Concertos’, p. 244.


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Ferguson’s adm irable line o f reasoning concerning autograph evidence o f perform ance practice seems to be w eakened by her parenthetical statem ent p er taining to shorthand notation in the fiill-score autograph o f the Piano C oncerto in C m ajor O p. 15, w here B eethoven’s habit o f extending the keyboard bass ‘into the first [bar] o r tw o o f tu tti’ is characterised as ‘perhaps absent-m inded’.41 I prefer to characterise it as a deliberate shorthand convention that reflects the persistence o f continuo practices in the Classical period. T o assess the purport o f B eethoven’s notational habit (i.e. extending the keyboard bass into the tuttis), one m ust place it in the larger context o f Baroque and Classical notational history. F or the tw entieth-century m ind, the greatest difficulty w ith autograph continuo notation lies in grasping the broad implications o f tim e-saving conventions such as incom plete and shorthand notation. Take, for example, one o f the most elementary shorthand terms, col basso. W hen applied to the keyboard idiom , this term was used generically; as such, it m ade no distinction betw een the left hand’s restricted col Basso as opposed to the tw o hands’ col basso continuo activity. T h e term was usually condensed to colB (as used by M ozart) o r Cb (as in the fiill-score autograph o f B eeth o v en ’s Piano C o n certo O p . 15).42 T h e purpose o f these generically used abbreviations was to spare the com poser from having to w rite a realisation, w rite a figured bass, o r w rite ou t separately the keyboard and the string bass. Naturally, composers took full advantage o f each and every option, and it is nothing short o f miraculous that w e possess even a scrap o f positive p ro o f for continuo beyond the traditional shorthand. H o w keen composers w ere o n saving tim e can be ascertained from the third option. T h o u g h it spared the com poser from having to w rite tw o sets o f bass lines, it still did n o t elim inate the task o f w riting ou t in longhand notation one o r the other. T w o options w ere available: to use longhand for the string bass and enter the shorthand cB into the keyboard system’s left-hand staff; or to use longhand for the keyboard bass and enter the shorthand col cembalo into the empty string bass staff. That composers overwhelm ingly chose the first option is not surprising: it saved them several letters. Ironically, w hat saved ink in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has caused an inordinate am ount o f it to be spilled in the ongoing tw entieth-century debate on w hether cB represents bonafide keyboard continuo or a mere cue continuum o f the orchestral activity. As w ith any widely practised time-saving conventions, the answer is contained only in a few docum ents created by composers o r copyists w h o took the trouble to walk the extra m ile as did B eethoven in the notation o f his ‘E m peror’. 41

ibid., p. 248.

42 See 1/453 downbeat; in 1/452, Beethoven had entered in longhand the beginning o f the soloist’s col basso activity. Beethoven’s notation is an exact replica o f M ozart’s habitual way o f indicating the inception o f continuo activity in long tuttis.


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10

Tibor Szász By discovering the true ending to M ozart’s Konzert-Rondo in A m ajor K386,

preserved in the British Library, Alan Tyson has unw ittingly unearthed the R osetta stone o f this com poser’s cB shorthand. C ontrary to his habit o f entering cB into the piano system’s em pty left-hand staff (a habit so ingrained that no exceptions are know n either earlier in this piece o r in any o f his piano concertos), M ozart filled out the keyboard system’s left-hand staff w ith a longhand bass line; thereafter, on tw o consecutive pages, he entered this shorthand term into the em pty string-bass staff: col cembalo.43 Should anyone suggest that the case o f K386 is bu t an accident, tw o m anuscript copies o f instrum ental concertos prove that M ozart’s ‘accident’ is not unique in the notational history o f the Baroque and the Classical eras. W hat appears to be acci dental in M ozart’s autograph is revealed as the prem editated notational principle in Johann Friedrich Agricola’s fiill-score manuscript copy (c. 1750) o fj. S. Bach’s Triple C oncerto in A m inor B W V 1044,44 and in a m anuscript copy o f Joseph H aydn’s C oncerto for organ (harpsichord) and violin in F m ajor H ob. X V III:6.45 In both, the copyist has consistendy entered the bass pitches into the keyboard soloist’s lefthand staff w hile m arking the em pty string-bass staff w ith the shorthand col Cembalo. T h e H aydn concerto’s m anuscript copy offers some revealing insights into the m entality o f the copyist w ho, it seems, had encountered an unexpected problem w hile copying the first m ovem ent’s second long tutti: was col Cembalo perhaps too ambiguous a term? So at the next turn o f the page, our conscientious copyist coined a n ew term: col B. del Cemb. (col Basso del Cembalo) - the string basses should repro duce only the pitches produced by the soloist’s left hand.46 H ad eighteenth- and nineteenth-century composers used the shorthand term col Basso del Cembalo in lieu o f cB (col Basso), performers today w ould doubdess no longer be busy debating w hether o r no t to play continuo, bu t rather h ow to play it in a style proper for a particular com poser. W hat they w ould discover is that the term basso continuo is a m isnom er w hen applied in an unqualified sense to the piano con certos o f M ozart and B eethoven. T h e first person to sin against M ozart’s concept o f keyboard continuo was none other than his father Leopold w ho, w ith the best o f intentions, ‘im proved’ his son’s 43 See facsimile in Alan Tyson, Mozart: Studies o f the Autograph Scores (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), pp. 284—5. 44 See facsimile on p. X I o f the Neue Back Ausgabe, VII:3. 45 Page 1 o f the manuscript bears the title: Concerto per il cembalo e violino principale/ con 2 violini, viola e basso./di/J. Haydn; it is catalogued as Littera W , No. 13.490 in the Brussels Conservatory Library. T he Kopiaturvorlage for this docum ent was a manuscript now preserved in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden, Musica 3 3 5 6 /0 /1 6 a . T he cembalo secondo part that begins at the first solo o f the Violino principale does not represent a continuo realisation: it is a keyboard adaptation o f the violin solo part, to be exe cuted only w hen a violin soloist is unavailable for performance (i.e. it represents an alternate version for tw o solo keyboards and orchestra). 46 T he term occurs on p. 12 in the Brussels copy.


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C am b rid ge U n iv e rsity P ress 9 78 -0 -5 2 1-4 16 4 4 -3 - P erfo rm in g B eeth o ven E dited b y Robin Stow ell F ro n tm a tte r M ore in fo rm ation

T h e ten essays in this volum e explore different aspects o f the perform ance o f instrum ental w orks by B eethoven. E ach essay discusses perform ance issues from B e eth o v en ’s tim e to th e present w h e th er the objective be to realise a perform ance in a historically appropriate m anner, to elucidate the inter pretation o f B eethoven’s m usic b y conductors and perform ers, to clarify transcriptions b y editors o r to reconstruct th e experience o f th e listener in various different periods. F o u r contributions focus o n the piano m usic (T ib o r Szász, B arry C o o p e r, D avid R o w la n d and M artin H ughes) w hile a n o th er group concentrates o n B eethoven’s m usic for strings (David W atkin, C live B row n and R o b in Stowell). T hese chapters are c om plem ented b y an exam ination o f B eeth o v en ’s exploitation o f the developing w in d c h o ir (C olin Law son), an evaluation o f early-tw en tieth -cen tu ry recording as pointers to earlyn in e te e n th -c e n tu ry perform ance practice (R o b e rt Philip) and a historical survey o f rescorings in B e eth o v en ’s sym phonies (D avid Pickett).


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C A M B R ID G E S T U D IE S IN P E R F O R M A N C E P R A C T I C E 4

Performing Beethoven


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General editor:

PE T ER WILLIAMS

Editorial board O T T O BIBA, H U G H M ACDONALD R O BERT M O R G A N , ALEXANDER SILBIGER R . LARRY T O D D


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Performing Beethoven Edited by R O B IN STO W ELL Professor o f Music, University o f Wales College o f Cardiff


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Published by the Press Syndicate o f the University o f Cambridge The Pitt Building,Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1994 First published 1994 Reprinted 1996 Printed in Great Britain by Woolnough Bookbinders Ltd, A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library o f Congress cataloguing in publication data

Performing Beethoven / edited by Robin Stowell. p. cm. —(Cambridge studies in performance practice; 4) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0 521 41644 2 (hardback) 1. Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827 - Criticism and interpretation. 2. Performance practice (Music) - 18th century. 3. Performance practice (Music) - 19th century. I. Stowell, Robin. II. Series. ML410.B42P47 1994 780’.92-dc20 93-31379 CIP MN ISBN 0 521 41644 2 hardback


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To the memory o f PETER

LE H U R A Y

(Í9 3 2 -Í9 9 2 )


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CONTENTS

List offigures General preface Preface

page x xi xiii

1

T ib o r Szász, D uke University, D urham , N o rth Carolina B eethoven’s basso continuo: notation and perform ance

1

2

Barry C ooper, University o f M anchester B eethoven’s revisions to his Fourth Piaiio C oncerto

23

3

David R ow land, C hrist’s College, Cam bridge B eethoven’s pianoforte pedalling

49

4

C olin Lawson, University o f Sheffield

70

B eethoven and the developm ent o f w ind instrum ents 5

David W atkin, L ondon B eethoven’s sonatas for piano and cello: aspects o f technique and perform ance

89

6

Clive B row n, University College B retton Hall, University o f Leeds Ferdinand D avid’s editions o f B eethoven

117

7

R o b in Stowell, University o f W ales College o f C ardiff T h e Violin C oncerto O p. 61: text and editions

150

8

R o b e rt Philip, T he O p en University Traditional habits o f perform ance in early-tw entieth-century recordings o f B eethoven

195

9

David Pickett, Indiana University

205

A comparative survey o f rescorings in B eethoven’s symphonies 10

M artin H ughes, B erlin B eethoven’s piano music: contem porary perform ance issues

228

Index o f Beethoven’s works Index o f names

240 242 ix


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FIGURES

5.1a

R o m b erg ’s fingerboard (shown in cross-section):

page 91

B ernhard R om berg, Violoncell Schule (Berlin 1840), frontispiece 5.1b

A typical B aroque cello fingerboard (cross-section)

91

5.1c

A typical m odem cello fingerboard (cross-section)

91

5.2

R o m b erg ’s string gauge: B ernhard R om berg, Violoncell Schule (Berlin 1840), frontispiece

92

5.3

B ernhard R om berg, Violoncell Schule (Berlin 1840), facing p. 9

93

5.4

T h e resonant notes o f the cello according to D uport: Jean-Louis D uport, Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et sur la conduite de l’archet (Paris 1806), p. 141

94

5.5

R o m b erg ’s m anner o f holding the bow : B ernhard R om berg, Violoncell Schule (Berlin 1840), facing p. 8

99

X


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GENERAL PREFACE

N o d o u b t th e claim, heard frequently today, that ‘authentic perform ance’ is a chim era, and that even the idea o f an ‘authentic edition’ cannot be sustained for (most) m usic before the last century o r tw o, is itself the consequence o f too sanguine an expectation raised by performers and scholars alike in the recent past. B o th have been understandably concerned to establish that a certain com poser ‘intended so-and-so’ o r ‘had such-and-such conditions o f perform ance in m ind’ or ‘m eant it to sound in this way o r that’. Scholars are inclined to rule on problems (‘research confirms the follow ing . . .’), perform ers to m ake the music a living experience (‘artistry o r musicianship suggests the following . . . ’). B oth are there in order to answer certain questions and establish an authority for w hat they do; both dem onstrate and persuade by the rhetoric o f th eir utterance, w h e th e r w elldocum ented research on the one hand o r convincing artistic perform ance o n the other; and the academ ic/com m ercial success o f bo th depends on the effectiveness o f that rhetoric. Some musicians even set ou t to convey authority in bo th schola rship and perform ance, recognising that music is conceptual and perceptual and thus n o t gainfully divisible into separate, com petitive disciplines. In general, if not always, the scholar appears to aim at the firm , affirmative statem ent, often seeing questions as som ething to be answ ered confidently rather than searchingly re defined or refined. In general, w ith some exceptions, performers have to aim at the confident statem ent, for their very livelihood hangs on an unhesitating decisiveness in fro n t o f audience o r m icrophone. In the process, b o th som etim es have the effect, perhaps even the intention, o f killing the dialectic — o f thw arting the pro gress that comes w ith further questions and a constant ‘yes, b u t’ response to w hat is seen, in the light o f changing definitions, as ‘scholarly evidence’ o r ‘convincing performance’. In th e b elief that the im m ense activity in prose and sound over the last few decades is now being accompanied by an increasing awareness o f the issues arising - a greater know ledge at last enabling the question to be m ore closely defined - the C am bridge Studies in Perform ance Practice w ill attem pt to m ake regular con tributions to this area o f study, on the basis o f several assumptions. Firsdy, at its best, xi


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xii

General preface

Perform ance Practice is so difficult a branch o f study as to be an almost impossibly elusive ideal. It cannot be merely a practical way o f ‘com bining perform ance and scholarship’, for these tw o are fundamentally different activities, each able to inform the o th er only up to a certain point. Secondly, if Perform ance Practice has m oved beyond the questions (now seen to be very dated) that exercised performance groups o f the 1950s and 60s, it can w iden itself to include any o r all music w ritten before the last few years. In this respect, such studies are a musician’s equivalent to the cry o f literary studies, ‘O nly contextualise!’, and this can serve as a useful starting-point for the historically m inded p erform er o r the practically m inded scholar. (The D erridaesque paradox that there is no context m ay have already affected som e literary studies, b u t context is still clearly crucial across the broader field o f music, the original Com parative Literature.) Cam bridge Studies in Perform ance Practice will devote volum es to any period in w hich useful questions can be asked, ranging from at least Gregorian chant to at least Stravinsky. Thirdly, Perform ance Practice is no t merely about perform ing, neither ‘this is h o w music was played’ n o r ‘this is h o w you should play it in a concert o r record ing today’. (These tw o statements are as often as n o t irreconcilable.) In studying all that w e can about the practical realisation o f a piece o f music w e are studying no t so m uch h o w it was played bu t h ow it was heard, both literally and on a deeper level. H o w it was conceived by the com poser and h o w it was perceived by the period’s listener are endless questions deserving constant study, for they bring one into intim ate contact w ith the historical art o f music as nothing else can. It is the music w e fail to understand, n o t its perform ance as such, if w e do n o t explore these endless questions. As w e know , every basic musical elem ent has had to be found, plucked o u t o f thin air — the notes, their tuning, compass, volum e, tim bre, pace, tim ing, tone, com bining - and they have constantly changed. In attem pting to grasp o r describe these elements as they belong to a certain piece o f music, it could becom e clear that any m o d em re-realisation in (public) perform ance is a quite separate issue. Nevertheless, it is an issue o f im portance to the w ider musical com m unity, as can be seen from the popular success o f perform ers and publications (records, journals, books) concerned w ith ‘authenticity’. In recognising this practical im portance, Cam bridge Studies in Perform ance Practice will frequently call upon authoritative perform ers to jo in scholars in the com m on cause, each offering insights to the process o f learning to ask and explore the right questions. PE T E R WILLIAMS


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PREFACE

A lthough it explores only a few perform ance issues w hich relate to a small cross section o f B eethoven’s oeuvre, it is m y sincere hope that the present volum e, in keeping w ith the aims o f the ‘Cam bridge Studies in Perform ance Practice’ series, will inspire scholars and performers to further thought about the various subjects discussed and perhaps even open up som e new avenues for m ore detailed con sideration. It includes essays by distinguished musicologists and perform ers, each exploring a different aspect o f B eethoven’s instrum ental m usic in perform ance, w h e th e r the objective be to realise a perform ance in a historically appropriate m anner and context o r to elucidate h o w B eethoven’s music was interpreted by conductors and performers, transcribed by editors, o r heard and perceived by the listener in various periods since its com position. F our studies focus o n the music for pianoforte: D avid R ow land discusses the various issues involved in pianoforte pedalling; M artin H ughes deals w ith some o f the num erous problem s involved in the presentation o f selected piano works on the m o d em instrum ent; T ib o r Szász reviews B eethoven’s application o f figured bass, focusing in particular o n tw o o f the piano concertos; w hile Barry C ooper explores the com poser’s m ore virtuosic, sophisticated and imaginative revisions to his Fourth Piano C oncerto. A nother group o f essays concentrates on Beethoven’s music for strings and dem on strates h o w playing techniques and approaches to perform ance and expression have changed over the years. David W atkin surveys the developm ent o f the cello and its tech n iq u e du rin g B eeth o v en ’s lifetim e, using as principal source m aterials the treatises o f Jean-Louis D uport, J. J. Friedrich D otzauer, B ernhard R om berg, JeanBaptiste Bréval and others, w hich shed significant light on matters o f expression such as bow ing style, vibrato, fingering and portam ento; Clive B row n focuses on Ferdinand D avid’s editions o f B eethoven’s music and shows how they reveal a style and technique o f perform ance w hich has a close relationship w ith practices that w ere current in the composer’s lifetime; while the present w riter has cast an eye over the textual history and various editions o f one piece, the Violin C oncerto O p. 61, and discusses h o w interpretations have changed in print over the years. xiii


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xiv

Preface

M eanw hile, R o b ert Philip lends an ear to early-tw entieth-century recordings o f B eethoven’s instrumental music and examines some features o f performance practice w hich are characteristic o f the period, arguing that these features should n o t be dismissed as merely old-fashioned b u t that they offer clues to nineteenth-century perform ance o f B eethoven, in some cases as far back as the com poser’s ow n time. C o lin Lawson investigates B eethoven’s exploitation o f the expanded range o f idioms offered by the developing w ind choir and assesses its implications for today’s performers, w hether o f m odem o r historical instruments. Last, but by no means least, David Pickett examines some o f the num erous em endations m ade to B eethoven’s original scoring by com posers and conductors o f the late n in eteen th and early tw entieth centuries. P eter le H uray was to have contributed to this volum e. U p to a few weeks before his untim ely death he was w orking on an essay on phrasing in B eethoven’s keyboard w orks. It is deeply regrettable that this b o o k has been deprived o f a contribution from a scholar and practical musician o f such rare excellence, w ho did so m uch as a teacher, w riter and executant to prom ote the development in performers o f stylistic and historical awareness in their performances. I dedicate this volum e to his m em ory. Finally, I w ould like to express m y gratitude to a num ber o f individuals w ho have assisted w ith the preparation o f this volum e. I am indebted to m y contributors for their co-operative attitude, prom ptness o f response to various problem s and queries and for giving readily o f their expertise; to m y wife and family for their patience and encouragem ent th ro u g h o u t the duration o f this project; to m y colleague, D r T im othy Taylor, for his assistance in com puter setting the musical examples; to the D epartm ent o f M usic, University o f Wales College o f C ardiff for som e financial assistance tow ards expenses involved in the preparation o f the project for the press; and to the series editors and Penny Souster and her team at C am bridge University Press for their guidance and professionalism in seeing the volum e into print. R O B IN STOWELL

Pitch registers are indicated by the following letter scheme

A cknow ledgem ent for kind perm ission to reproduce illustrations is due to the R oyal College o f Music, London, for Figs. 5.1a, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5. 1/71 refers to the first m ovem ent, bar 71


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C am b rid ge U n iv e rsity P ress 9 78 -0 -5 2 1-4 16 4 4 -3 - P erfo rm in g B eeth o ven E dited b y Robin Stow ell In dex M ore in fo rm ation

I N D E X OF B E E T H O V E N ’S W O R K S

W orks are identified in the left-hand colum n by opus and W o O (‘W e rk ohne O puszahl’ - ‘w o rk w ithout opus num ber’) num bers as listed in G. Kinsky and H . Halm: Das Werk Beethovens (M unich and D uisburg 1955). 1/1 T rio (pf, vn, vc), E t 142, 233 1 /3 T rio (pf, vn, vc), c 135, 137 2 T h ree Sonatas (pf), f, A , C 57 2 /1 Sonata (pf), f 230, 231, 234 2 / 2 Sonata (pf), A 235 2 / 3 Sonata (pf), C 230 5 /1 Sonata (vc, pf), F 89, 105, 113 5 /2 Sonata (vc, pf), g 89, 101, 102, 107-8, 109, 113 7 Sonata (pf), El> 229, 233n, 235 10/1 Sonata (pf), c 229 1 0 /2 Sonata (pf), F 231, 234, 235 1 0 /3 Sonata (pf), D 229, 230, 231, 232, 235 11 T rio (pf, c l/v n , vc), Bt 56, 77, 136 12 T h ree Sonatas (vn, pf), D , A , Et 118 12/1 Sonata (vn, pf), D 123 1 2 /2 Sonata (vn, pf), A 134, 140, 147, 148 1 2 /3 Sonata (vn, pf), Et 131, 141, 149 13 Sonata (pf), c (‘P athétique’) 200 14/1 Sonata (pf), E 230, 231 15 C o n c erto (pf), C In , 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 15, 58, 77, 80, 238 16 Q u in te t (pf, ob, cl, h n , bn), E t 75, 7 6 -7 , 124 17 Sonata (hn, pf), F 75 18 Six S tring Q uartets, F, G , D , c, A , B t 122 1 8 /2 S tring Q u a rtet, G 130, 131, 134 1 8 /3 S tring Q u a rtet, D 138, 140, 142 1 8 /4 S tring Q u a rtet, c 142, 145 1 8 /5 S tring Q u a rtet, A 138, 139 1 8 /6 S tring Q u a rtet, Bt 142, 143 19 C o n c erto (pf), Bt In , 2, 4, 5, 8, 13, 20, 33, 58 20 Septet (cl, hn, b n , va, ve, db), E t 76, 77 21 Sym phony, C 79, 84, 85, 205, 206, 217, 2 2 6 -7

22 Sonata (pf), Bt 233, 235n 23 Sonata (vn, pf), a 135, 140, 147 24 Sonata (vn, pf), F (‘Spring’) 147, 19 6 -8 ,

201 26 Sonata (pf), At 55, 57 2 7 /1 Sonata (pf), E t ‘quasi una fantasia’ 235 2 7 /2 Sonata (pf), cf ‘quasi una fantasia’ (‘M o o n lig h t’) 6 3 -4 , 67, 68, 19 8 -9 , 200 28 Sonata (pf), D (‘Pastoral’) 230, 231 3 0 /1 Sonata (vn, pf), A 123, 138, 139 3 0 /2 Sonata (vn, pf), c 131, 147 3 1 /1 Sonata (pf), G 237 3 1 /2 Sonata (pf), d (‘T em p est’) 229, 236, 238 3 3 /7 Bagatelle (pf), A t 236 35 Fifteen V ariations and a Fugue o n an O riginal T h em e (pf) (‘Prom etheus V ariations’) 29 36 S ym phony, D 80, 86, 206, 2 2 6 -7 37 C o n c erto (pf), c I n , 2, 4, 5, 8, 13, 20, 28, 32, 33, 57, 63, 67, 8 0-1 40 R o m an c e (vn, orch), G 150 47 Sonata (vn, pf), A (‘K reutzer’) 118, 119, 123, 124, 1 3 0 -1 , 139, 150, 1 9 6 -7 , 201 50 R o m an c e (vn, orch), F 150 53 Sonata (pf), C (‘W aldstein’) 29, 5 8 -9 , 60, 234, 236, 237, 238 54 Sonata (pf), F 230, 231 55 S ym phony, Et (‘E roica’) 79, 81, 84, 85, 87, 150, 198, 206, 210, 213, 218, 219, 221, 222, 223, 224, 2 2 6 -7 56 C o n c erto (pf, vn, vc), C I n , 2, 4, 5, 20, 80, 90, 116 57 Sonata (pf), f (‘Appassionata’) 6 1 -2 , 229 58 C o n c erto (pf), G xiv, In , 2, 4, 5, 13—14, 2 3 -4 8 , 59, 67, 68, 81, 198, 2 3 3 -4 59 /1 S tring Q u a rtet, F 142, 1 4 3 ,1 4 5 -6 , 148

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Index of Beethoven’s works 5 9 /2 S tring Q u a rtet, e 143 5 9 /3 S tring Q u a rtet, C 137, 139 60 Sym phony, Bl> 81, 86, 198, 201, 225n, 2 2 6 -7 61 C o n c e rto (vn), D xiv, 77, 8 1 -2 , 86, 118, 120, 121n, 123, 12 4 -9 , 15 0 -9 4 , 195, 1 9 7-8 65 ‘Ah! perfido’, scena and aria 80 67 Sym phony, c 31, 79, 84, 86, 196, 202, 206, 2 1 0 -1 1 , 213, 215, 216, 218, 220, 221, 222, 224, 2 2 6 -7 68 Sym phony, F (‘Pastoral’) 31, 82, 84, 85, 87, 206, 216, 220, 221, 222, 2 2 6 -7 69 Sonata (vc, pf), A 9 1 ,1 0 4 , 110, 113, 234 7 0 / lT r i o (pf, vn, ve), D 134, 135 7 0 /2 T rio (pf, vn, vc), El- 139 71 Sextet (2 cl. 2 h n , 2 bn), E t 77 72 Fidelio 82, 85, 87 72a O vertures: ‘L eonora’ N os. 2 and 3 79, 81, 84 72b O v ertu re: Fidelio 87 73 C o n c erto (pf), £ t (‘E m p e ro r’) In , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13,17n, 22 7 4 S tring Q u a rtet, El> (‘H a rp ’) 131, 134, 138 78 Sonata (pf), F# 238 79 Sonata (pf), G 235, 236 81a Sonata (pf), E t (‘Les A dieux’) 28, 236 81b Sextet (2hn, 2vn, va, ve), E t 7 5 -6 86 M ass, C 1 ,2 , 4, 5 ,7 87 T rio (2 ob, ca), C 74 90 Sonata (pf), e 234 92 S ym phony, A 79, 206, 211, 212, 213, 2 1 5 -1 6 , 220, 221, 222, 223, 2 2 6 -7 93 Sym phony, F 79, 82, 84, 211, 223, 224, 2 2 6 -7 95 S tring Q u a rtet, f (‘Serioso’) 137, 139, 198 96 Sonata (vn, pf), G 1 1 8 -1 9 ,1 3 1 ,1 3 2 -3 , 233, 234


241

97 T rio (pf, vn, vc), Bl> (‘A rch d u k e’) 233, 235 101 Sonata (pf), A 59, 67, 229, 237 102/1 Sonata (vc, pf), C 113 1 0 2 /2 Sonata (vc, pf), D 105, 112, 113 103 O c te t (2 ob, 2 cl, 2 h n , 2 bn), El» 75, 76, 77 104 arr. o f O p . l N o .3 for S tring Q u in te t 13 2 -3 106 Sonata (pf), Bl> (‘H am m erklavier’) 59, 67, 68, 232, 235, 237 109 Sonata (pf), E 59, 61, 67, 229, 237 110 Sonata (pf), Al. 59, 67, 233, 237, 238 111 Sonata (pf), c 33, 59, 67, 229 113 T h e R u in s o f A thens 87 120 T h irty -th ree Variations o n a W altz by Diabelli (pf) 230 123 Missa solemnis 1, 2, 4, 5, 6n, 7, 8, 2 0 -1 , 82, 86, 87 125 Sym phony, d (‘C h o ra l’) 77, 78, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 205, 206, 2 0 7 -9 , 210, 2 1 1 -1 2 , 213, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 2 2 6 -7 130 String Q u a rtet, Bl> 142 131 S tring Q u a rtet, cf 138, 201 132 S tring Q u a rtet, a 117, 126n, 136, 138, 139, 146, 147 138 O verture: ‘L eonora’ N o .l 81 W o O 5 C o n c erto (vn), C , frag. 150 W o O 25 R o n d in o (2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hn, 2 bn), El. 74, 77 W o O 28 V ariations o n ‘Là ci darem la m an o ’ (2 ob, ca) 74 W o O 37 T rio (pf, fl, bn), G 74 W o O 45 V ariations o n ‘See the c o n q u ’ring h ero com es’ from Judas Maccabeus (vc, pf) 103-4 W o O 87 C antata o n the D eath o f the E m p e ro r Joseph II 78

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I N D E X OF NAMES

A ber, A d o lf 1 A dler, G uido 225, 226n Agricola, Jo h a n n Friedrich 10 A lbrechtsberger, Jo h a n n 4n A lm enraeder, Carl 86 A nderson, E m ily 5 In , 52n, 53n, 90n A pel, W illi 71 n A rrau, C laudio 19 6 -7 , 198 A ttw o o d , T hom as 73 A uer, L eopold 154, 157, 158, 161n, 163n, 165, 166, 17 1 -2 , 185, 186, 187, 193 Babitz, Sol 155n, 169, 170 B ach, C arl Philipp E m anuel 4n, 106, 228n B ach, Jo h a n n C hristian 77 B ach, Jo h a n n M ichael 4n B ach, Jo h a n n Sebastian 1, 10, 15, 19, 71, 83, 106, 203, 230 B achm ann, A lberto 152, 157, 158, 159, 160-1, 173, 183, 184, 185, 186, 188, 191, 192 B ackofen, Jo h a n n G eorg H ein rich 79, 81 B adura-S koda, Paul 23, 24, 25, 32, 51n, 112n B aerm ann, H ein rich 73, 77, 83 Baillot, Pierre 97, 102-4, 108, 109, 119, 120, 130, 132n, 151n, 160, 161n, 170n, 177 B arbieri, P. 132n B arbirolli, Sir J o h n 188, 202, 210, 226 B arenboim , D aniel 188 Bartels, B ernhard 186n B arthélem on, François-H ippolyte 119 B audiot, C harles-N icolas 94, 102, 104, 108, 109, 113-14 Bay, E. 198 B B C S ym phony O rchestra 202, 226 B eck, A n to n 75 B eck, Ignaz 75 B erlin Philharm onic O rchestra 196, 226 B erlin State O p era O rchestra 196, 202 B erlioz, H e c to r 83, 86, 87, 206 B err [Beer], Friedrich 83 B ertau, M artin 89 Berw ald, Franz 141n


Birchall, R o b e rt 19n B landford, W alter F .H . 88 B laukopf, K urt 214n B lech, Leo 188 B lum , I. H . 20n B oehm , Joseph 118, 119, 121, 126, 127n B oehm , T heobald 70, 83, 84 B oieldieu, A drien 6 5 -7 B rahm s, Johannes 78, 83, 141, 203, 221 B re itk o p f and H ärtel 7 B reuning, Julie v o n 151 B reuning, Stephan von 151 Bréval, Jean-B aptiste xiii, 112 B ridgetow er, G eorge Polgreen 118, 119, 12 3 -4 Bristow, G eorge Frederick 20n B roadw ood, J o h n 53 B rod, H . 79 B row n, Clive xiii, 71, 72, 101, 11 7 -4 9 , 151n, 156n, 163n, 164, 170n, 172n, 193n B row n, H o w ard M ayer l l n , 71 B udapest Q u a rte t 196, 200-1 B iilow , H ans v o n 208, 209—12, 217, 218, 219, 222, 231 B urney, C harles 49, 170n Busch, A d o lf 1, 196-7, 198, 201, 202 Busch, Fritz 225 Busch Q u a rte t 199, 200-1 Capeller, Jo h a n n N e p o m u k 84 C apet Q u a rte t 196, 200-1 Carse, A dam 79 Catel, C harles-S im on 108 Cavallini, E rnesto 79 C h eru b in i, Luigi 72 C h o p in , Fryderyk Franciszek 105, 114n, 203 C h o ro n , A lexandre (-E tienne) 8 5 -6 C lem ent, Franz 118, 1 19-20, 124, 126, 127, 128, 150, 151, 194 C lem enti, M uzio 55, 6 2 -3 , 6 4 -5 , 151, 153, 228n Cleveland O rchestra 227

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Index of names C old ico tt, A nne-L ouise 33n C olum bia S ym phony O rchestra 227 C o n c ertg eb o u w O rchestra 226, 227 C o o p e r, B arry xiii, 23—48 C o rre tte, M ichel 12n C o rri, D o m en ico 132 C o rto t, Alfred 196-7 C osta, Sir M ichael 206 C ram er, C arl Friedrich 50 C ram er, Jo h a n n Baptist 55, 57, 67, 228n C ram er, W ilh elm 143 C rosland, Jesse 21 In C ro u c h , Frederick W illiam 19 C upis, François 100 C zech P hilharm onic O rchestra 216 C zerny, C arl 31, 32, 51, 52, 55n, 57, 60, 6 1 -2 , 6 3 -4 , 65, 67, 68, 69, 112, 113, 116, 124, 149n, 151 D am rosch, W alter 211—12, 222n D an d rieu , J ean-François 16 D avid, Ferdinand xiii, 104, 11 7 -4 9 , 154, 156, 158, 160, 161n, 165, 166, 170n, 172n, 173, 180, 185 Davis, Sir C o lin 188 de B ériot, C harles A. 170n Debussy, C laude 221 D el M ar, N o rm a n 151 D err, E llw ood 1 5 -1 6 n D essauer, H ein rich 67n, 154—5, 157, 161, 163n, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 173, 1 7 7 -8 , 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186, 189 D o m n ich , H einrich 75, 88 D o n t, Jacob (Jakob) 121, 1 2 4 -9 , 149, 151n, 154, 156, 157, 160, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172n, 173, 17 5 -6 , 177, 182, 184, 185 D otzauer, J. J. Friedrich xiii, 90, 91, 93—4, 9 7 -1 0 0 , 102, 104, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 114-5 D rabkin, W illiam 132n D ragonetti, D o m en ico 205, 206 D resden Staatskapelle 225 D u b u k , A lexander 67 D ukas, Paul 156n, 161n, 163n D u p o rt, Jean-L ouis xiii, 89, 90, 92, 93- j , 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 1 0 5 -6 , 106-7, 108, 110, 1 12-13, 115 D u p o rt, Jean -P ierre 89, 90 D u rh am , Lilla 144n D ussek, Ja n Ladislav 55n, 228n E berhardt, Siegfried 193n Edw ards, F. G . 124n E lecto r M ax Franz 50 Eigar, E dw ard 202


243

Enesco, G eorges 189 E rard, Sébastien 52n, 53 E rdödy, C ountess A nna M arie v o n 90 Fanning, D avid 34n Ferguson, Linda Faye 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15n Fétis, François-Joseph 206 Fiala, Joseph 74 Field, J o h n 55n, 60, 67 F in s o n .J o n W . 1 7 1 ,1 8 3 ,1 8 7 Fischer, E dw in 200 Fitzpatrick, H orace 74n 75n Flesch, Carl 154, 155n, 156, 157-8, 159, 161n, 162, 163, 165, 168, 169, 170-1, 172, 173-5, 176, 17 7 -8 , 179, 1 8 0 -2 , 183, 184, 185, 189, 193, 194n Flonzaley Q u a rtet 196, 200-1 Forbes, E lliot 50n, 51n, 55n, 56n, 57n, 74n, 78n, 7 9n, 117n Francoeur, Louis-Joseph 84 Frederick II, ‘T h e G reat’ 144 Friedlow sky, Joseph 80, 82 Friedm an, Ignacy 19 6 -7 , 19 8 -9 Friedrich W ilh elm II 89 Fries, C o u n t M o ritz von 56 Froehlich (Fröhlich), (Franz) Joseph 72, 86, 101, 110, 135, 191 Fürtw ängler, W ilh elm 208, 209, 210, 218, 224, 225, 226 Galam ian, Ivan 155n, 173, 185 G alston, Jam es A. 222n García, M anuel 170n G elinek, Jo s e f 64 G erber, E rnst L udw ig 74, 87, 119n G illet, G eorges 196 G iom ovichi, G iovanni M ane 119 G iulini, C arlo M aria 210, 226 G leich, Ferdinand 87 Graf, C onrad 53, 69 Grasberger, Franz 150n G renser (family) 79 G rove, Sir G eorge 71, 75, 76, 83, 122n, 206n, 208 G rundm ann, Jakob Friedrich 79 G riitzm acher, Friedrich 9 5 -6 , 104 H abeneck, F rançois-A ntoine 206 H ague, C harles 19 H aitink, B ernard 188 Halié O rchestra 2 0 1 -2 H alm , H ans 24n H am burger, Paul 223n H andel, G eorge Frideric 1, 77 H arty, Sir H am ilton 201—2 H auser, E m il 196, 201 H aydn, (Johann) M ichael 74

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244

Index o f names

H aydn, Joseph 1 0 ,1 5 , 18, 19, 21, 52, 74, 77, 79, 85, 86, 89, 90, 96n, 122, 132, 144, 149n, 228n H eerm an n , H u g o 182 H eifetz, Jascha 188, 198 H ellm esberger, Joseph (i) 121, 150n H ellyer, R o g e r 85n Hess, W illy 20n, 23, 155, 159 H e y w o rth , P eter 216, 223n H iller, Ferdinand 122 H ilm ar, E rnst 205 H o b o h m , W o lf 7n H offinan, Jo a c h im 4n H ofm ann, Jo s e f 200 H ogarth, G eorge 86 H o g w o o d , C h risto p h er 202 H o ld e, A rtu r 222n H olle and Schultze-B iesantz 156, 158n, 186, 187, 189 H olz, Karl 118, 120 H ubay, Je n ő 151n, 155n, 156, 157, 158, 1 59-60, 161n, 162, 163n, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 173, 1 7 6 -7 ,1 7 8 , 180, 181, 184, 185, 189, 191, 192 H uberm an, Bronislaw 188, 195-6, 196-7, 201 H ughes, M artin xiii, 2 2 8 -3 9 H ughes, R o sem ary 150n H u m m el, Jo h a n n N e p o m u k 53, 54, 55, 69, 1 1 5 , 190n Ishii, A kira 16n Jacobs, R o b e rt L. 206n, 207n Jacobsen, M axim 155n, 156, 158, 160, 161n, 163n, 165n, 169, 170, 191 Jakesch, Jo h a n n 52 Jan d er, O w e n 14n Jo ach im , Jo sep h 121n, 126, 130, 132, 133—4, 135, 140, 141, 144, 149, 151, 15 2 -3 , 154, 155, 156, 158, 160, 161n, 162, 166, 167, 169, 170, 172, 182, 185, 186, 187, 189, 191, 193, 194 Jo u s se .Jo h n 137n Ju n k e r, C arl L udw ig 50, 109 K agan, Susan 4n K alkbrenner, Frédéric 54 K app, Julius 52n, 53n Karajan, H e rb e rt v o n 209, 210, 218, 226 Keller, H ans 182n, 183n, 189n, 193n, 194n K insky, G eo rg 24n, 31n, 53n K leiber, E rich 210, 211, 212, 218, 226 K lein, Jo h a n n Joseph 4n K lein, R u d o lf 58n K lem perer, O tto 188, 208, 209, 210, 216, 2 2 3 -4 , 226


Kolisch, R u d o lf 189 K olneder, W alter 55n Koussevitzky, Sergey 202 Kraft, A n to n 90 K ram er, R . 58n Krebs, C arl 210, 21 In Kreisler, Fritz 1 5 2 -3 , 155n, 188, 193, 194, 195, 1 9 6 -7 , 198, 201 K reutzer, R o d o lp h e 118, 119n, 130 K rieg, J J . 90 K rum pholz, W enzel 117, 118, 1 3 5-6 K ubelik, Ja n 1 5 2-3 K ulenkam pff, G eorg 188 K um m er, Friedrich A ugust 111-12 K üthen, H a n s-W em e r 8 K üthm ann, G . 193n L am ond, Frederic 198, 200 L am oureux O rchestra 225, 226 L andon, H .C . R o b b in s 21n Lasser, Jo h a n n Baptist 135 Lawson, C o lin xiv, 7 0 -8 8 le Huray, P eter xiv, 112n, 115n, 116n L eibow itz, R e n é 189n L ener Q u a rte t 200-1 Levasseur, Jean H e n ri 108 L evien, J o h n M e w b u m 206n Levin, R o b e rt D . 11 Linke, Joseph 90 Lipiner, Siegfried 213 Liszt, Franz 83, 203, 208, 209 L ochner, L. P. 193n L öhlein (Loehlein), G eorg Sim on 4n, 136 Lolli, A nto n io 132 L ondon Philharm onic O rchestra 202 L ongm an and B roderip 52n Los Angeles Philharm onic O rchestra 226 L um sden, Alan 177n M acA rdle, D onald 74, 186, 230n M ahler, Gustav 165, 208, 209, 210, 2 12-16, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226 M alibran, A lexander 122n, 144 M alloch, W . 149n M a n é n .Ju a n 150n M arkevitch, Ig o r 206, 217, 2 2 4 -5 , 226 M arpurg, Friedrich W ilh elm 4n M artens, Frederick H . 154n M arx, A dolph B ernard 4n, 22 M ayseder, Joseph 118, 119, 120 M endel, A rth u r 189n M endel, H erm an n 122 M endelssohn, Felix 22, 83, 120, 121, 144, 151, 206 M engelberg, W illem 208, 209, 210, 216, 218, 2 2 0 -1 , 223, 224, 225, 227

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Index o f names M e n u h in , Y ehudi 188 M e sta n o , N icola 132 M eyerbeer, G iacom o 134 M itchell, W illiam J o h n 106n M oscheies, Ignaz 205—6 M oser, Aloyse 52 M oser, Andreas 126, 130n, 144n, 156, 158, 161n, 182, 186, 1 8 7 ,1 9 1 , 194n M öser, Jo h a n n N e p o m u k 150n M ozart, (Johann G eorg) L eopold 10, 100, 106, 1 0 8 ,1 3 2 , 136, 180, 203 M ozart, W olfgang A m adeus 2n, 8, 9, 10, 11 -1 3 , 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 51, 70, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 8 0 -1 , 82, 85, 87, 8 9 ,1 4 4 , 149n, 203, 220, 222n, 228, 233 M flhlfeld, C hristian 210n M üller, A ugust E berhard 4n M üller, Iw an 79 N B C S ym phony O rchestra 202, 227 N eefe, C hristian G ottlob 50 N e w m an , W illiam S. 8n, 53, 60, 61, 63 N e w Y o rk P hilharm onic O rchestra 221n, 2 2 2 n ,227 N icholson, C harles 84 N ikisch, A rth u r 196, 207n N o o n a n , Frederick 32n, 232n N o rrin g to n , R o g e r 202 N össelt, H . J. 126n N o tte b o h m , G ustav 3n, 4n, 6n, 7n, 23, 25, 31, 32n, 61n N ovello, Sabilla 54n O istrakh, D avid 188 O istrakh, Igor 188 O n slow , G eorges 144 O z i, E tienne 86 Paderew ski, Ignacy Ja n 198, 199, 200 Paganini, N ic o lò 126, 128, 154n Paisa, Jo h a n n 74 Panofka, H ein rich 120 Pearce, C harles W . 199-200 Philadelphia O rchestra 222n, 227 Philharm onia O rchestra 226 Philip, R o b e rt, xiv, 1 8 7 -8 , 195 -2 0 4 Pickett, D avid xiv, 2 0 5 -2 7 Plandnga, L eon 55n P u n to , G iovanni 75 Q u a n tz, Jo h a n n Jo ach im 83 R ach m an in o v , Sergei 202 R a m e au , Jean-P hilippe 134 R azum ovsky Q u a rte t 90 R edervill, E. R . 193


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R eeser, E duard 220 R e ic h a, A ntoine 74 R e ic h ard t, Jo h a n n Friedrich 132n, 136, 170n R eilly, E dw ard R . 226n R eissm an, A ugust F. W . 122n R ic h te r, H ans 207n R ies, Ferdinard 31, 32, 56n, 117, 124, 186n, 206, 232 R in g e r, A lexander 55n R o ch litz, Jo h a n n Friedrich 79, 122n R o d e , P ierre 104, 118, 119, 1 3 0 ,132n R o eser, V alentin 73n, 77 R o m b erg , Andreas 118, 119 R o m b e rg , B ernhard xiii, 8 9 -9 0 , 9 0 -3 , 94, 9 7 -8 , 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108, 109, 111, 1 1 3 - 1 4 ,1 1 5 ,1 1 8 ,1 1 9 , 143—4 R o sé , A rnold 201 R o sé Q u a rte t 196 R o se n , C harles 73—4 R osen b erg , H . and A. 154n R ossini, G ioachino 72 R ostál, M ax 154n, 155, 156, 157, 159, 160, 163n, 165n, 166, 169, 1 7 4 -5 , 17 6 -7 , 181, 1 8 2 ,1 8 3 ,1 8 5 ,1 9 1 ,1 9 4 R o w la n d , D avid xiii, 4 9 -6 9 R oyal P hilharm onic O rchestra 202 R u d o lp h (Johann Joseph R ainer) A rchduke 4n, 3 1 ,3 2 R u p p , F. 1 9 6 -7 , 198 Sadie, Stanley l l n , 71n Salieri, A nto n io 132n Sallandn, François 79 Salom on, Jo h a n n P eter 18n, 19, 21 Sam son, Jim 60n Sarasate, Pablo de 15 2 -3 Sauret, E m ile 156n, 157, 158, 160, 161n, 165n, 166, 170n, 173, 191 Schalk, Franz 196 Scherchen, H e rm an n 210, 217, 227 Schilling, G ustav 77n Schindler, A n to n 74, 78, 79, 80, 150, 186n, 230, 231 S chm idt-G örg, Joseph 58n Schm idt-Isserstedt, H ans 188 Schnabel, A rtu r 198, 199, 200, 202, 231, 238 Schneiderhan, W olfgang 150n, 194 Schnittke, Alfred 194n S choenberg, A rnold 216 Scholes, Percy 49n Scholl, C arl 80 Schubart, D aniel 78 S chubert, Franz 68, 83, 84, 85, 86 Schubert, Jo h a n n Friedrich 132n Schum ann, R o b e rt 151, 213, 220, 221

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Index o f names

Schuppanzigh, Ignaz 90, 118, 119, 120 Schuppanzigh Q u a rtet 90 Schw arz, Boris 155n, 164n, 194n Serkin, R u d o lf 19 6 -7 , 198 Shepard, J o h n 20n Sim rock, N ikolaus 74 Sm art, Sir G eorge 117-18 Sonneck, O scar G . 51n Späth, Franz Jacob 51 Spohr, Louis 83, 90n, 92, 1 11-12, 114, 115, 118, 119, 120, 12 1 -2 , 127, 130, 132n, 136, 137, 144, 145, 148, 154n, 170n, 180, 182, 190n, 194, 203 Stadler, A n to n 77, 79, 82 Stanford, C harles Villiers 218 Stefan, R u d o lf 205n Steibelt, D aniel 56, 57, 60 Stein, Friedrich 31 Stein, Jo h a n n (Georg) A ndreas 50, 51, 53 Stein, N an ette 51 Steinw ay (family o f piano makers) 231 Stokow ski, L eopold 213 S tone, W illiam 71 Stowell, R o b in xiii-xiv, 97n, 103, 112n, 130n, 132n, 150-94 Straeten, E d m o n d S. J. van d e r 109n, 122n Strauss, R ich a rd 196, 202, 208, 209, 210, 211, 218, 2 1 9 -2 0 , 221 Stravinsky, Igor 224 Streicher, Jo h a n n Andreas 5 1 ,5 3 Süssmayr, Franz X aver 82 Szász, T ib o r xiii, 1 -22 Szell, G eorge 188, 210, 227 Szeryng, H en ry k 188 Szigeti, Joseph 151n, 155n, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 17 3 -4 , 176, 17 7 -9 , 182, 184, 191, 194, 1 9 6 -7 , 198, 201 T affanel, Paul 196 T alich, Vaslav 216 T an , M elvyn 202 T artini, G iuseppe 98 T aruskin, R ich a rd 202 T chaikovsky, P y o tr Il’yich 209, 224 T hayer, A lexander W h eelo ck 50n, 51n, 55n, 56n, 57n, 74n, 78, 79, 117n T h ib au d , Jacques 1 9 6 -7 ,2 0 1 T h o m so n , César 152—3 T hü rrsch m id t, C arl 74, 75 T o d d , R . Larry 22n T om asini, Luigi (jr) 151n T oscanini, A rturo 188, 202, 209, 210, 211, 218, 221, 227 T o u rte , François 98, 106, 154, 163, 164, 184 T ren n e r, Franz 219n


T riebensee, Jo s e f 74 T rom litz, Jo h a n n G eorg 83 T u lo u , Jean-L ouis 83 T ü rk , D aniel G o td o b 4n, 206 T yson, Alan 10, 24n, 151, 1 5 2 -4 , 156, 162, 163 U lrich, Karl W ilh elm 151n Vaccai, N icola 170n Vaslin, O liv e-C h arlier 102—4 V ienna Philharm onic O rchestra 196, 226 V ienna State O pera O rchestra 227 V ieuxtem ps, H en ri 151n, 193 V iotti, G iovanni Battista 101, 115, 118, 119, 127, 130, 132, 136, 137, 143, 161, 164 V ogt, Gustav 79 W agner, R ich ard 84, 87, 134, 187, 205, 206, 2 0 7 -9 , 211, 214, 218, 219, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226 W alter, B ru n o 188, 208, 209, 210, 211, 218, 2 2 1 -3 , 224, 227 W alter, (Gabriel) A nton 50n, 51, 52, 67 W atkin, D avid xiii, 8 9 -1 1 6 W eber, C arl M aria von 22, 73, 77, 82, 83, 86, 87, 199, 203 W eb e r, G ottfried 80, 82, 83, 84 W ebern, A n to n v o n 216 W ebster, Jam es 15n W egeler, Franz G erhard 32n, 56n, 78, 117, 124n, 1 8 6 n ,2 3 2 n W eingartner, Felix 202, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 216, 2 1 7 -1 9 , 220, 221, 225 W en d t, Jo h a n n 74 W esley, Sam uel 119 W essely, H ans 193—4 W esterholt (family) 74 W esto n , Pam ela 77n W ich m an n , H . 122n W ieniaw ski, H en ry k 193 W ilhelm j, A ugust 15 2 -3 , 1 5 5 -6 , 157, 158, 161n, 163n, 169, 170, 173, 181, 182, 184, 185, 186, 187, 191, 192 W illiam s, P eter x i-x ii W oldem ar, M ichel 132, 170n W ooldridge, D avid 206, 21 In W ranitzky, A n to n 118 W urm ser, Leo 219n W y th e , D eborah 53n Y am polsky, Israil’ M arkovich 17 7 -8 , 179 Ysaÿe, E ugène 15 2 -3 , 1 8 2 -3 , 193 Z u k erm an , Pinchas 188

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C am b rid ge U n iv e rsity P ress 9 78 -0 -5 2 1-4 16 4 4 -3 - P erfo rm in g B eeth o ven E dited b y Robin Stow ell T able o f Contents M ore in fo rm ation

CONTENTS

List offigures General preface Preface

page x xi xiii

1

T ib o r Szász, D uke University, D urham , N o rth Carolina B eethoven’s basso continuo: notation and perform ance

1

2

Barry C ooper, University o f M anchester B eethoven’s revisions to his Fourth Piatio C oncerto

23

3

David R ow land, C hrist’s College, Cam bridge B eethoven’s pianoforte pedalling

49

4

C olin Lawson, University o f Sheffield

70

B eethoven and the developm ent o f w ind instrum ents 5

David W atkin, L ondon B eethoven’s sonatas for piano and cello: aspects o f technique and perform ance

89

6

Clive B row n, University College B retton Hall, University o f Leeds Ferdinand D avid’s editions o f B eethoven

117

7

R o b in Stowell, University o f W ales College o f C ardiff T h e Violin C oncerto O p. 61: text and editions

150

8

R o b e rt Philip, T he O p en University Traditional habits o f perform ance in early-tw entieth-century recordings o f B eethoven

195

9

David Pickett, Indiana University

205

A comparative survey o f rescorings in B eethoven’s symphonies 10

M artin H ughes, Berlin B eethoven’s piano music: contem porary perform ance issues

228

Index o f Beethoven’s works Index o f names

240 242 ix


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B e e th o v e n ’s basso continuo

11

autograph notation by providing figured or unfigured bass in short tuttis w here W olfgang had prohibited keyboard activity.47 B eethoven fared no better at the hands o f his dedicated copyists and engraven: they, too, ‘im proved’ his notation by ignoring certain autograph indications that w ere m eant to qualify figures in short tuttis as representing orchestral cues.48 T hro u g h the curtailm ent o f continuo activity in short tuttis, M ozart and Beethoven, perhaps m ore than other composers, granted the soloist a prom inent status as primus inter pares.49 M O Z A R T ’ S R E A L IS A T IO N O F T H E P IA N O C O N C E R T O IN C M A JO R

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Few discoveries relating to composers o f the Classical period have incited greater controversy than the discovery in 1920 o f M ozart’s autograph additions to an eighteenth-century keyboard part belonging to a com plete set o f orchestral parts o f the Piano C oncerto in C major K246. Recently, R obert D. Levin has concluded that this docum ent ‘does not shed light on M ozart’s ow n continuo playing’.50 T he basis o f Levin’s pronouncem ent is his agreement with Ferguson’s theory that M ozart’s additions do not represent a continuo realisation but rather an ad hoc arrangement for a perform ance on tw o pianos.51 Although Ferguson’s theory can be refuted on purely musical grounds, this is no longer necessary thanks to the discovery o f a second eighteenth-century manuscript copy o f the Piano C oncerto K246 containing M ozart’s additions.52 T hat M ozart’s additions w ere copied into the keyboard part belonging to a second, complete set o f orchestral parts for this concerto (produced for the M ozart family at some expense, one supposes) strongly suggests that the additions w ere not prepared for a perfor mance on tw o pianos but for a performance with orchestra where an amateur soloist was being assisted in the task o f providing a continuo realisation. A preliminary assessment o f the second set o f orchestral parts shows it to have been used by one o f M ozart’s Parisian students who entered not only ‘improvements’ 47 in fiiil-score autographs, Mozart interdicted keyboard activity by entering rests into the left-hand staff o f the keyboard system, as in: K238, 2/8 4 -5 ; K242, 1/190-2 and 2/end o f bar 64 and beginning o f bar 65; K271, 1 /6 3 -4 and 66-7, 3 /7 9 -8 2 and 352-5; K415, 1/167. 48 Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Emperor” C oncerto’, pp. 44-54. 49 See Szísz, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “E m peror” C oncerto’, pp. 42-3. 50 R obert D. Levin, ‘Instrumental Ornamentation, Improvisation and Cadenzas’, in Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie, eds.. Performance Practice, (2 vols., London 1989), II p. 288. 51

Ferguson, ‘Col Basso and Generalbass in Mozart’s Keyboard Concertos’, pp. 13—4 and 25-7; and Linda Faye Ferguson, ‘M ozart’s Keyboard Concertos: T utti Notations and Performance Models’, Mozart Jahrbuch (1984/85), pp. 32-9.

52 I found this docum ent in a large collection o f manuscript copies o f works by M ozart preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. T he orchestral parts o f the Concerto in C m ajor K246 are catalogued as D. 11.980. Title o f keyboard part: C oncerto. Del Sig.~or Amadeo W olgango M ozart./Cem balo.

12

Tibor Szász

to his teacher’s continuo realisation but also an unmistakably French-styled figured bass to one o f the ‘im proved’ bars.53 Interestingly, the manuscript contains a loose leaf bearing a hitherto unknow n cadenza to the first m ovem ent o f K246 that seems to represent a hurried (and later corrected) copy o f a now lost M ozart autograph.54 As to w h eth er M ozart’s notated realisation sheds light on his ow n continuo playing, the answer is a qualified ‘yes’. T he argument that Mozart would have played a more virtuosic realisation is flawed, because it is based on the mistaken assumption that the student’s technical deficiency prevented the com poser from creating an elaborate accom panim ent. In fact, nothing prevented M ozart from elaborating his realisation w ith trills, arpeggios, scales, Alberti basses and other ornamental, figu rative or virtuosic passages, since any amateur capable o f playing the solos would have obviously been capable o f incorporating their stylistic and technical features into a continuo realisation. In addition, a comparison o f M ozart’s realisation with the nearly seventy Classical realisations know n to this w riter shows it to be similar in every essential detail to the m ost elaborate o f these. T he only exception is the doubling o f the oboes in 2 /9 —12 which suggests that the realisation was conceived with tw o alternatives in mind: w hen only strings w ere available, the soloist w ould play the oboe doubling;55 but w hen winds w ere also available, the soloist w ould leave out the oboe doubling. W hen placed in the context o f eighteenth-century performance practices, M ozart’s full-score autographs and his realisation o f K246 suggest the following guidelines for the perform ance o f continuo w ith full orchestra. (1) As a rule, the soloist plays continuo only w hen the double-basses are playing, and only if n o t excluded by rests entered in the left-hand staff o f the keyboard part. If the cellos and the double-basses play divisi, the soloist reinforces the double-bass line (at the notated rather than the actual pitch). (2) W hen not otherwise excluded, the soloist plays non-stop in the middle register o f the keyboard: mostly with both hands, occasionally with the left hand alone. 53 E ntered in longhand, the am ateur’s realisation ignores M ozart’s appropriate

t.s .

choice during four

thinly orchestrated bars: 1/20, 22, 30 and 31. In 1/20, the student’s realisation is a harmonic abomination. Figures complement the realisation at 1/22, where the third and the first inversions o f the dom inant seventh chord in C major are notated as a slashed ‘4’ and ‘5’ respectively. In French notation, these slashed figures indicate the

p resence o f

the

tr it o n e ( t h e

intervals o f the

a u g m e n te d

diminished fifth ‘b—f ) in the aforementioned chords. See Michel Corrette’s 1753), p. 17, ‘Leçon en ut.’, and the note

o n th e b o tto m :

fourth ‘f-b ’ or the

L e M a ître de clavecin

(Paris

‘Les François chiffrent le Triton ainsi’, followed

by a slashed ‘4’. 54 T he orchestral parts

(a n d

perhaps

th e ca d en za , to o )

may have been copied already

in

Salzburg (i.e.

p r io r

to M ozart’s arrival in Paris). 55 T he m oney-m aking potential

of

K246 as a teaching piece

p a r excellen ce m a y

have given M ozart the

incentive needed to compose an accompaniment that could accommodate student performances using the

r e d u c e d fo r c e s o f a

small string ensemble or even a s tr in g quartet (see

M o z a r t 's a quattro

performing

alternative for his piano concertos K413, K414, K415 and K449). T he Paris copy contains two sets o f fingerings in the solos o f the three movements: one by the copyist, the other by the amateur.


13

First m ovem ents require a special approach: in long ritomellos, the soloist plays mostly with both hands, and occasionally with the left hand alone; in short tuttis w ithin solo blocks, the soloist piays mostly w ith the left hand alone or, rarely, not at all.56 (3) U n d er no circumstances should the soloist play anything that could distract the audience from concentrating on the orchestral parts. T he main exception is a few beats before the cadenza —here the soloist may overstep the boundaries by playing w ith the right hand thickly textured chords in a higher-than-norm al con tin u o register; m eanw hile, the left hand m ay descend to a lo w er-th an normal col basso register by playing in octaves.57 (4) T he soloist should never try to com plem ent the w ind section - the keyboard’s sole allegiance is to the string section, o f which it is an inseparable part. (5) U n d er all circum stances, the soloist should adapt the string-bass line to the keyboard idiom .58 Interestingly, som e o f the guidelines deduced from M ozart’s autographs are corroborated by the printed and manuscript sources o f Beethoven’s piano concertos. H ow ever, the Piano C oncerto N o. 4 in G major O p. 58 constitutes an exception that must be discussed separately. T H E C A S E O F B E E T H O V E N ’S P IA N O C O N C E R T O IN G M A JO R O P . 58

Ferguson has made a convincing case for the keyboard’s total silence in the tuttis o f this concerto’s Andante con m oto. Indeed, in this m ovem ent, Beethoven seems to have turned every accepted rule o f Classical continuo practice on its head. R ather than casting the soloist in the traditional role as supporting m em ber o f the string section, B eethoven here crcated the first truly R om antic m odel o f the soloist v the orchestra (or, w hat is even m ore iconoclastic, soloist v string section).59 It seems, how ever, that the keyboard—string orchestra polarity is operational in all three m ovem ents. By applying the first guideline above to the concerto’s first m ovem ent, it becomes obvious that the keyboard-string-section polarity is fully activated already at the very beginning o f the piece.6*1H ence, accompaniment should be started no earlier (and no later) than at the double-bass arco entrance at 1/15 (and even here, only as t.s.). In the third m ovem ent, too, the keyboard-stringsection polarity is in effect during every tutti prior to the subito fortissimo (3/32). 56 See Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, pp. 42—3. 57 See, am ong others, M ozart’s K365, 3 /4 6 3 -5 . The thicker texture may have provided the means o f controlling the ritenuto that signals the soloist’s im m inent cadenza on the tonic 6-4 chord. 58 59

Szász, ‘Figured bass in Beethoven’s “Em peror” C oncerto’, p. 11, n. 14. T he opening o f M ozart’s Piano Concerto in El> major K271 does not qualify, since the keyboard is treated as a m em ber o f the string section (the soloist plays all'unisono).

60

Double-bass exclusion in 1/6-13 implies the concom itant exclusion o f keyboard continuo.

14

T ib o r Szász

B ut even this clim actic reunification o f the tw o forces is exceptional: for nine consecutive bars (3/32—40), the soloist is callcd upon to support the uninterrupted syncopations o f the string basses doubled by the bassoons. R einforcing the string bass with concom itant chordal syncopations in the right hand produces a stylistically unacceptable effect, because the keyboard becomes a separate body o f sound set in opposition to the downbeats o f the other orchestral instruments. This exceptional and unparalleled continuo fragment in the Classical concerto literature allows only one stylistically correct solution: as in M ozart’s realisation o f the C oncerto K246, 2 /4 , the right hand must precede the off-beat activity o f the left hand by providing chordal support on the downbeats (shown in this author’s realisa tion, which includes the adaptation o f the string bass to the keyboard idiom) (Ex. 1.1). Ex. 1.1

Beethoven: Piano Concerto in G major Op. 58, third movement, bars 32-41

B ut after this b rief jo in in g o f forces, the keyboard and the orchestra part ways again by resum ing their playful dialogue at the dow nbeat sforzando (3/41).61 U nfortunately, the proverbial carelessness o f engravers makes it impossible to ascertain B eeth o v en ’s co n tinuo intentions in the G m ajor concerto. Even the existence o f a separate cue system in the second m ovem ent (unique am ong the original editions o f the piano concertos) does not clarify the com poser’s intent: probably as a result o f the engraver’s unthinking habit o f translating all pitches played by cellos and double-basses into large-size noteheads, the soloist appears to be instructed to play not only the solos but also the string-bass line engraved with large-size noteheads in the cue system. 61

For a hypothetical programmatic basis for Beethoven’s radical departure from continuo practices, see O w en Jander, ‘Beethoven’s “Orpheus in Hades’” , Nineteenth-Century Music, 8 /3 (1985), pp. 195-212. Performers may, however, choose to follow the model o f mainstream realisations such as Mozart’s K246 and Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’, where the R ondo theme is played by the keyboard player in the dual capacity o f soloist and accompanist.


15

THE S I G N I F I C A N C E OF N O T A T E D C O N T I N U O F R A G M E N T S IN C O N C E R T O S AND S Y M P H O N I E S

A major problem for today’s musician is the scarcity (though not total absence) o f continuo realisations in full-score autographs and manuscript copies o f concertos and symphonies: in J. S. B ach’s Triple C oncerto in A m inor BW V 1044, five bars of con tin u o at the beginning o f the third m ovem ent;62 am ong Joseph H aydn’s hundred plus symphonies, eleven bars o f right-hand activity at the close o f his Symphony N o. 98;63 in M ozart’s original piano concertos, two bars o f continuo near the end o f his penultim ate concerto (K537);64 in B eethoven’s Piano C oncerto Op. 15, tw o bars o f figured bass towards the end o f the second m ovem ent.65 T he co m m o n d en o m in ator in these examples is that they represent unusual solutions, often exceptions to the then current performance conventions; and w hen ever performance conventions were violated, the notational conventions encouraged that the exceptions be recorded in longhand. Unawareness o f this notational prin ciple leads to tw o errors o f interpretation: the explicitly notated fragment is held up as a m odel to be em ulated elsewhere; or its absence is interpreted as im plying the absence o f keyboard continuo in Classical concertos and symphonies.66 In addition to these authentic fragments, a sizeable num ber o f extant printed and manuscript realisations deserve separate consideration.

M E T H O D S F O R I D E N T I F Y I N G B O N A F I D E C O N T I N U O R E A L I S A T I O N S IN EIGHTEENTH- AND N IN ET E E N T H -C E N T U R Y SOURCES

In their continuo realisations, late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century musi cians em ployed either figures67 or notes on a staff. Because the use o f figures as the 62 In the opening bars o f the third m ovement, a string bass-line is absent, its place taken by the viola line and its realisation by the cembalo; as soon as the situation returns to normal (i.e. the string bass enters), Bach discontinues the realisation, its place taken by shorthand figured bass notation. 63 T he right hand docs not play chords in the middle register o f the keyboard —it plays chords broken successively in upward and downw ard direction, with the fifth finger repeatedly depressing the highest pitch available on Haydn’s fortepiano. 64 At 3 /1 8 5 -6 , the keyboard bass has m ore notes than the string bass; the right hand does not play downbeat chords in the middle register but off-beat sixths in the high register; bar 187 is not realised because here everything returns to normal (see the editorial suggestions in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe). 65 Ferguson has already pointed out that at 2 /8 4 -5 the cellos and double-basses play divisi, hence Beethoven was compelled to clarify that it was not the cello but the double-bass line that was to be fitted out with figures in the piano part. 66 James Webster, ‘O n the Absence o f Keyboard C ontinuo in H aydn’s Symphonies’, Early Music, 18/4 (1990), pp. 599-608. 67 T he importance for performance practicc o f continuo realisations that employ figured bass as their exclusive notational symbol was discussed by Ellwood Derr in his lecture ‘Basso C ontinuo Realisation in M ozart’s Piano C oncertos’ (Michigan M ozartFest, T he University o f M ichigan in A nn Arbor,

16

T ib o r Szász

absolute equivalent o f longhand notation is little know n nowadays, a brief expla nation is in order. T he distinctive feature o f figures used for the purposes o f continuo realisations is their scrambled appearance. Such scrambling is, o f course, intended, the relative position o f figures representing their relative distance from the bass pitch. T he most systematic use o f this notational alternative is found in Jean-François D andrieu’s Principes de l ’accompagnement du clavecin (c. 1719).68 W hen applied literally, this long hand notational alternative yields an unambiguous figured-bass realisation such as that found in the fragments below, taken from the original edition o f M ozart’s Piano C oncerto in A m ajor K414.69 Ex. 1.2 edition

Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major K414, first movement, bars 41-7, Artaria

Ex. 1.3 edition

Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major K414, second movement, bars 1-3, Artaria

T he misplaced horizontal dashes in Ex. 1.3, 2 /2 —3 belong betw een the last beat o f bar one and the first beat o f bar tw o (shown in square brackets). U nfortunately, this type o f longhand figured-bass notation was used incon sistently in Classical realisations. T he cause o f this inconsistency is not too difficult to guess. Because the system did not offer any time-saving alternatives, performers would at best realise the m ore problem atic passages with the longhand numerical (67 contd.) 18 N ovem ber 1989). But since I am not familiar with the nature o f D err’s conclusions other than from belated firsthand reports, I am summarising here the results o f my independent research. 68 Every exercise is notated in three versions: figured with the longhand numerical alternative, figured tra ditionally (shorthand) and unfigured. I am indebted to Akira Ishii for having brought this treatise to my attention. 69

Published in Vienna by Artaria (plate num ber 41). The lower staff reproduces the original figures; the upper staff represents this writer’s translation o f their pitch equivalent. W ithout explanation, the original figures were ‘unscrambled’ in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe.


17

alternative, then revert to the traditional (shorthand) figured bass for the less prob lematic ones. T he result is a smorgasbord o f notations that offers no enviable task for tw entieth-century sleuths in search o f authentic realisations: they have no alter native but to attem pt to separate the figures intended as longhand from those intended as shorthand notation. It w ould appear that no such problems could possibly plague the extant reali sations that use notes on a staff as their exclusive notational device. Nevertheless, various ways w ere found to circum vent the tedious process o f w riting out full realisations. Let us take a later edition o f M ozart’s Piano C oncerto K414.7n T he first m ovem ent’s opening tutti (not reproduced) contains no realisation; it is notated w ith the traditional string bass-line in the left-hand staff (large-sized figured bass unadapted to th e keyboard idiom ),7' and the violin cue in the right-hand staff (small-sized noteheads).72 B ut the opening tuttis o f the second and third m ove ments do contain realisations printed in small-size notes. N o confusion can arise from using this notational system as long as the realisations are carried out consistently throughout the rest o f the m ovem ent. This, however, was not accomplished in the opening tutti o f the third m ovem ent where, it appears, a problem arose about how to accom pany properly the appoggiaturas o f the first violins. R ather than solve the problem on the spot, the realisation was abandoned momentarily, its place taken by the violin-cue pitches, as seen in Ex. 1.4. Ex. 1.4 edition

Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major K414, third movement, bars 1—8, Schmitt

70 G R A N D C O N C E R T / pour le/ CLAVECIN ou F O R T E P IA N O / [etc.]/ W: A: M O Z A R T ./ Liv; I. Prix f*2—10—/ à A m sterdam / c h e z j. S ch m itt./ [etc]. (N o plate number). 71

Beethoven’s painstaking adaptation o f the string bass to the keyboard idiom in the ‘Emperor’ remains the supreme model for col Basso practices.

72 N ote, however, that the violin cue is interrupted whenever the soloist is not to play continuo, as in bars 13—14, 58, and 60.

18

T ib o r Szász

O nly later, at the return o f the R o n d o them e, was the problem o f correct keyboard accom panim ent solved, as seen in Ex. 1.5.73 Ex. 1.5 Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major K414, third movement, bars 96—103, Schmitt edition

T he consequences o f these inconsistent notational practices are similar to the problems created by m ixing longhand and shorthand figured bass: today’s musician has no alternative but to attem pt to sort out the small-sized notes intended as violin cues from the small-sizc notes intended as bona fide keyboard continuo. For this reason, the only advice that can be given to those in search o f realisations is this: look o u t for them anyw here and everyw here, for they may appear in the least expected places. Yet it w ould be a mistake to assume that no consistently prepared realisations w ere produced in the Classical era. M ozart’s Piano C oncerto K414 was published around 1802 in an edition that provides realisations for every long and short tutti.74 T hough not w ithout flaws, the overall quality o f this realisation is excellent, and it is hereby recom m ended as one o f the most representative models for ‘authentic’ realisations.75 B ut no publication measures up to the quality and scope o f a little-know n British venture: forty-eight Haydn symphonies arranged as quintets w ith keyboard continuo.76 Significantly, the keyboard part is referred to by terms that are bor row ed from Baroque term inology. T w o o f the three arrangers —the violinist and 73 The all’ottava sopra indications in square brackets in the left-hand staff represent this writer’s suggestions for adapting the string bass to the keyboard idiom (see n. 87). 74 G R A N D C O N C E R T O / pour le / Piano-Forte/ [etc.]/ W. A. M ozart,/ Oeuvre 4m e./ L. [1]./ (Edition faite d’après le manuscrit original/ de l’auteur)./ A Offenbach s/m chez J. André. Prix f 2 ® [plate num ber 1554]. 75 My main reservations are that this realisation perpetrates the Baroque concept o f keyboard continuo (right hand plays in all short tuttis), and that the bass is unadapted for the keyboard idiom. 76 Arranged for flute, string quartet and keyboard, the four sets o f twelve symphonies were published in London. T w o sets were arranged by Johann Peter Salomon. The first set (catalogued as h. 655. qq. in


19

Kapellmeister Johann Peter Salomon and the cellist Frederick W illiam C rouch — call the keyboard part an ‘accom panim ent’ (a term encountered in the first bar o f J. S. Bach’s full-score autograph o f the Brandenburg C oncerto N o. 5). T he third arranger, Salom on’s violin pupil D r Charles H ague, ‘Professor o f M usic in the University o f C am bridge’, gives the keyboard adaptation the unabashed name o f ‘thorough bass’. Nevertheless, the only realisations that may be term ed consistently genuine continuo are those by Salomon, for both C rouch and Hague have overstepped the bounds o f accepted continuo practices by occasionally assigning to the keyboard player’s right hand obbligato orchestral parts. Salom on consistently avoids this temptation. Nevertheless, Salomon had to grapple w ith notational problems caused by non-m usical (i.e. commercial) interests. O ne such concern was to make these arrangements available at an affordable price; for this purpose, the keyboard part’s left-hand staff was deliberately conceived as string- and, concom itantly, keyboardbass.77 This m oney-saving device is prom inently displayed in Germ an engravings o f Salomon’s arrangements; in a copy o f H aydn’s Sym phony N o. 98 issued in Berlin, the absence o f a bass part is explained as follows: ‘P IA N O F O R T E , Die untem Stimme zugleich V I O L O N C E L L O 'Naturally, any o f the adaptations that were originally conceived w ith this m oney-saving alternative in m ind cannot provide any insight into how keyboard players w ere expected to adapt the string bass to the keyboard idiom. Similarly, symphonies published w ithout a separate keyboard part cannot provide any insight into how keyboard players were expected to support the string section o f the orchestra. T he obsession w ith tim e- and m oney-saving devices reaches new heights in manuscript copies and the original edition o f B eethoven’s masses. T he single staff of the organ part, or the left-hand staff o f the organ system, is occasionally called upon to accom m odate any o f the following situations, sometimes simultaneously: the cellos and double-basses playing separate bass lines w ith either the arco or the (76 contd.) the British Library’s Catalogue o f Printed Music - hereafter CPM ) contains the ‘London’ symphonies (Nos. 97, 93, 94, 98, 95, 96, 104, 103, 102, 99, 101 and 100) that received their world premieres in London under the combined leadership o f Haydn (fortepiano continuo) and Salomon. T he second set, published by Birchall (g. 455. v. (2.) in CPM ), contains symphonies Nos. 85, 83, 90, 92, 51, 91, 48, 64, 88, 82, 80 and 73. A third set, arranged by Dr Charles Hague, was published by Preston (h. 2872. b. in CPM - the flute part is missing) and contains symphonies Nos. 66, 69, 74, 44, 63, 75, 70, 41, 71, 47, 77 and 53. T he last set, arranged by Frederick William C rouch and published by Welsh and Hawes (Mus. 14. 76-81 in the Cambridge University Library Catalogue), contains symphonies Nos. 56, 76, 81, 67, 78, 79, Gruppe 1:G3, 43, 57, 55, Gruppe 1:B2, 61. 77 R o b ert Birchall’s re-engraving o f Salom on’s arrangements (dated [ 1820?] in the CPM ) offers this costlier alternative: ‘NB. a Separate Bass [cello) part to these Q uintetts may be had. Price 2.s6.’ 78 Q U IN Z E Q U IN T U O R S / pour la/ Flûte, 2 Violons, Alto & Violoncelle/ No. 1 à 6 / avec accompagn: de Piano Forte ad lib itum / arrangé des grands Sym phonies/ composées p our les Concerts de M r Salom on/ à Londres/ par/Joseph Haydn . . . / Chez N. S IM R O C K à B E R LIN , [plate num ber 85].

20

T ib o r Szász

pizzicato option;79 figured bass unadapted to the organ idiom that indicates the left— and the right-hand activity o f the organist plus the activity o f the feet on the pedals; figured bass adapted to the organ idiom; longhand realisation o f the organist’s righthand activity; pitches played by the contrafagotto; instrumental cues o f various instru m ents entered w ith the same size noteheads as the organ part; long stretches w here the organ supports the vocal ensem ble’s contrapuntal activity part by part; and figured bass to cue in the orchestral activity during senza Organo and t.s. stretches. O f course, today’s organist is rarely aware o f any o f this, for the new organ parts are usually printed on an independent, tw o-staff system. Therefore it must be rem em bered that, with few exceptions, the pitches that appear in the single or left-hand staff o f B eethoven’s masses may have very little if anything to do w ith how the bass line ought to be adapted to the organ idiom. Finally, some closing remarks on figured bass in general. It may surprise many a m usician today to find o u t that figured bass per se was no t considered to be a foolpro o f m eth o d o f ensuring proper harm onic, rhythm ic and m elodic accom panim ent. Figures w ere too often faulty, and it is instructive to see the harmonic m onstrosities com m itted by an am ateur w ho, in 1806, produced a com plete manuscript realisation o f M ozart’s Piano C oncerto in G m ajor K453 based on the faulty figures and the corrupt use o f t.s. as published in the original edition o f this w ork.80 A m ore effective means o f assisting performers in the production o f correct accom panim ents was to provide them w ith an unadapted and unfigured string bass plus the first-violin cue (a notation adopted in B eethoven’s Piano C oncertos O pp. 19 and 37, and the Triple C oncerto O p. 56). This m ethod was also employed by Kapellmeisters w ho, thanks to the visual and aural proxim ity o f the first violinist, w ere able to improvise keyboard accom panim ents from w hat to the uninitiated m ust have appeared to be a bare string-bass part. P O S T S C R I P T : S U G G E S T I O N S F O R RE A L IS IN G B E E T H O V E N ’S F I G U R E D A N D U N F I G U R E D BASS

For organists, the model for the realisation o f B eethoven’s figured and unfigured bass ought to be self-evident: the realisation o f the Missa solemnis as published in the 79 Apparently unaware that arco and pizzicato must be treated differently by the keyboard accompanist, Willy Hess has mistakenly concluded that the occurrence o f pizz. in an organ part implies that the affected bass notes represent string-bass cues (see his Eulenburg pocket score No. 951 edition o f the Missa solemnis, p. X X ); the rules o f adapting p izz. are quoted in Szász, ‘Figured bass in B eethoven’s “E m peror” C oncerto’, p. 25, n. 27. 80 See especially 1/233, and 3/12. In its corrupt use, t.s. is a generic term that denotes the absence o f harmonic activity, i.e. it can be interpreted at will as all'ottava, as unisono, or as genuine t.s.. I found this realisation among the papers o f George Frederick Bristow (catalogued as JO B 7 6-9 in the N ew York Public Library) and I am indebted to John Shepard for his help. The year 1806 is inscribed under the name I. H. Blum on the covers o f both the fortepiano and the Violino Im0 parts.


21

original edition. For pianists, I do not know o f a better initiation into Classical continuo practices than perform ing H aydn’s London Symphonies as arranged by the co-conductor o f the celebrated Salomon concerts. True, Johann Peter Salomon’s keyboard accompaniments cannot be taken at face value in all aspects. As a rule, the bass line is unadapted for the keyboard idiom, and occasionally the realisations provide harmonies even w here the orchestral bass is carried by instrum ents other than the string basses. T o be sure, precedents for such practices exist in th e B aroque repertoire.81 B ut it w ould be a m istake to make routine practice out o f such exceptional cases.82 Nevertheless, if Salomon’s arrangements were disseminated in m odem editions,83 performers w ould gain access to quality realisations representative o f mainstream con tinuo practices from the end o f the eighteenth and the beginning o f the nineteenth centuries. W hen utilising Salom on’s realisations as models for tutti accom panim ent in piano concertos, soloists should provide a similar keyboard support, but only w hen the string basses are playing. G iven B eethoven’s thicker orchestration, it would seem plausible to play occasionally thicker textures w ith the right hand than those found in M ozart’s realisation o f the Piano C oncerto K246.84 As to the problem o f adapting the string bass to the keyboard idiom , I suggest the following expedient solutions. (1) R epeated notes in quick succession: leave out the notes that are not occurring on main beats an d /o r play trem olo.85 (2) Figurative or ornam ental string bass: play only the pitches that are essential for the harm onic perception o f the passage.86 (3) Any unadapted pitches occurring in the left-hand staff may be played either as w ritten , o r all’ottava sopra, or col ottava sopra, o r all’ottava bassa, o r col ottava bassa.*7 B ut w hatever one plays, it should be comfortable for the hand, and it should not take hours on end to learn. 81 See n. 62 in this chapter. 82 T he figures accompanying the viola bass line in l / t - 6 o f Haydn’s Concerto in D major Hob. XVII1:11 as engraved b yj . J. Hum m el (Berlin and Amsterdam) represent cues (note the qualifying symbol ‘Viola’); by contrast, the figures starting at 1/7 represent continuo (note the qualifying symbol Cem: [baloj). 83 According to H. C. R obbins Landon, Salomon’s autograph quintet arrangement o f the ‘L ondon’ sym phonies is in private possession in Hollywood, California. 84 See Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “ Emperor” C oncerto’, p. 10, n. 13. 85 See M ozart’s adaptation o f the string bass in the Piano Concertos K37, 1/12-15; K453, 3/2 7 0 -2 ; and K466, 3/370. 86 See M ozart, Piano Q uartet in G m inor K478, 2 /128-9. In B eethoven’s Op. 58, 1 /56-7, play only every fourth note (i.e. play only the pitches on beats 1,2,3,4 - not as single notes, but col ottava bassa). 87 See Szász, ‘Figured Bass in B eethoven’s “E m peror” C o n certo ’, Exs. 1-7, 16a and 17. T he term all’ottava sopra represents the left hand’s activity o f playing single pitches one octave higher than the cello line (not to be confused with the right hand’s all’ottava activity defined earlier).

22

T ib o r Szász

For those interested in the w ider implications o f this topic, a few closing remarks are appended. Experience has show n that the m odern concert grand piano can function effectively in both solo and continuo capacities.** If, however, one chooses ‘original’ instrum ents for perform ing Classical concertos, it should be rem em bered that, in probably most o f the standard Classical repertoire, the term ‘Cembalo' no longer refers to the harpsichord (Beethoven still retains this term in his full-score autograph o f the ‘E m p ero r’). It is, on the one hand, fallacious to assert that all music by B eethoven’s contem poraries should be played w ith continuo: w ritten about the time o f the ‘E m peror’, the full-score autograph manuscript o f Carl Maria von W eb er’s Piano C o ncerto O p. 15 contains enough evidence to support the conclusion that its com poser preferred the soloist to be silent in all tuttis.S9 But, on the other hand, it is equally w rong to suggest that Beethoven was the last composer to expect his works to be performed with continuo: if the first-hand testimony o f the great music theorist Adolph Bernhard M arx is o f any im port, then M endelssohn still conducted his string symphonies o f the early 1820s from the keyboard, ‘which Felix played in discreet accom panim ent, and mostly or entirely as thoroughbass’.90 N o r do these concerts o f M endelssohn represent the swan song o f keyboard con tinuo, for this au th o r has dated the only know n nin eteen th -cen tu ry full-score m anuscript copy o f the ‘E m peror’ as having been prepared no earlier than 1841 and no later than 1843.91 In this score, the orchestral cues present in the original piano part’s right- and left-hand staves w ere consistently elim inated, yet B eethoven’s keyboard adaptation o f the string bass together w ith its figures, tasto solo and all’ottava episodes were fully retained. About a decade and a half later, the ‘Em peror’ was finally engraved in w hat became the first full-score edition o f this work: the idiomatic keyboard bass - and the figures - and the tasto solos - and the all’ottavas had all vanished into thin air. 88 See Szász, ‘Figured Bass in Beethoven’s “Emperor” C oncerto’, p. 63, n. 76. 89 Catalogued as Add. MS 47853 in the British Library. 90 A. B. Marx, E rinnerungen aus m einem L eb en (Berlin 1865), vol. I, trans, in ‘From the M emoirs o f Adolf Bernhard M arx’, 91

M en d elsso h n an d H is W orld,

ed. R . Larry Todd (Princeton 1991), p. 207.

Catalogued as X. 232 in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris. M y m ethodology for dating this manuscript will be recounted in a forthcom ing issue o f E a rly

K ey b oa rd Journ a l.