Beethoven: Chamber Music For Horns, Winds And Strings

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Cat No: 8553090

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099409025

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN

Description
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) Septet in E Flat Major, for violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon, Op. 20 Quintet in E Flat Major for three horns, oboe and bassoon, H.19 Sextet in E Flat Major for two horns and string quartet, Op. 81b In 1792 Beethoven left his native city of Bonn to seek his fortune in the imperial capital, Vienna. Five years earlier his patron, the Archbishop of Cologne, a scion of the imperial family, had sent him to Vienna, where he had hoped to have lessons with Mozart. His plans were frustrated by the illness and subsequent death of his mother, which made it necessary to return to Bonn and before long to take charge of the welfare of his younger brothers. Beethoven's father, overshadowed by the eminence of his own father, Kapellmeister to a former Archbishop, had proved inadequate both as a musician and in the family, of which his son now took control. As a boy Beethoven had been trained to continue family tradition as a musician and had followed his father and grandfather as a member of the archiepiscopal musical establishment. In 1792 he arrived in Vienna with introductions to various members of the nobility and with the offer of lessons with Haydn, from whom he later claimed to have learned nothing. There were further lessons from the Court Composer, Antonio Salieri, and from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and an initial career of some brilliance as a keyboard virtuoso. He was to establish himself, in the course of time, as a figure of remarkable genius and originality and as a social eccentric, no respecter of persons, his eccentricity all the greater for his increasing deafness. This last disability made public performance, whether as a keyboard-player or in the direction of his own music, increasingly difficult, and must have served to encourage the development of one particular facet of his music, stigmatised by hostile contemporary critics as \learned, the use of counterpoint. He died in Vienna in 1827. Beethoven's Septet in E flat major, Opus 20, for violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon, was completed in 1800 and played at a private reception at the house of Prince Schwarzenberg. On 2nd April it was included in a public concert for the composer's benefit given at the Royal Imperial Court Theatre by the Burg. The programme on that occasion included a symphony by Mozart, an aria and a duet from Haydn's Creation, an improvisation by Beethoven, a piano concerto and a new symphony by him and the Septet, which was dedicated to the Empress Maria Theresia, second wife of the Emperor Franz II. The players were Schuppanzigh, Schreiber, Schindlecker, Bär, Nickel, Matauschek and Dietzel, the first of these well known for his connection with Beethoven. The concert brought its difficulties and a contemporary critic had little good to say about the theatre orchestra, which refused to play under Wranitzky, as Beethoven wanted, and seemingly made a poor showing. No such critic
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